You won’t remember the day you picked the habit that shaped your twenties. It’ll look like a normal day.

Habits do not announce themselves on arrival. The run you went on because a friend asked, the first time you opened a notebook, the evening you started staying up instead of sleeping: none of those felt like a decision about the next decade. They became one through repetition. By the time a habit is visible, it has usually been running for years.

Since you cannot spot the important day in advance, work on the ordinary ones. Add one small thing you would want still running at twenty-five, and begin it today rather than on Monday.