3853: If You Don’t Use It, You’ll Lose It by Benjamin Hardy on Continuous Growth Habits

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Self-improvement

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3853: Benjamin Hardy challenges the myth of fixed personality by revealing how identity, creativity, and motivation are shaped through intentional action. By placing yourself in demanding situations and aligning with a powerful “why,” you create the momentum for deep transformation, internally and externally. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy/if-you-dont-use-it-you-ll-lose-it-abe87a3bda94 Quotes to ponder: "Your behavior shapes your identity. You are responsible for who you become." "Action creates inspiration. Forward progress creates motivation." "Put yourself in a situation that demands your greatest behavior. Then watch as a seemingly endless supply of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic help aids you." Episode references: The Cult of Personality Testing: https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Personality-Testing-Miseducate-Mismanage/dp/0743280725 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought you by Shopify. With Shopify, 2026 is the year you make it happen. It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person. Plus with marketing built in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to. Join the millions who've already made the leap, like Jim Shark and all birds, and ring in the new year with Shopify.
0:23.4	Sign up for your £1 per month trial at Shopify.com.com.
0:30.6	This is Optimal Living Daily. If you don't use it, you'll lose it.
0:35.4	By Benjamin Hardy of Benjamin Hardy.com, and I'm Justin Mollick.
0:39.9	Welcome to the podcast where I simply read blogs to you for free, like a gigantic, ongoing
0:44.7	audiobook, but from many different authors. Today's post being from popular writer Benjamin Hardy,
0:50.6	so let's get right to it as we optimize your life.
1:02.9	If you don't use it, you'll lose it by Benjamin Hardy of Benjamin Hardy.com.
1:09.4	If you don't continually hone your mind and body, they become foggy and flabby.
1:12.5	What happens to a garden if you stop tilling the soil and weeding it? It gets overrun and disheveled. Is there ever a point you can stop nurturing the ground?
1:18.8	Even after you've planted beautiful plants and removed all entanglements? Obviously not,
1:23.1	but there are deeper truths embedded in this idea, ideas that go counter to most of the fundamental assumptions of Western ideals.
1:32.0	Firstly, it's important to realize that nothing is permanent.
1:36.5	Everything is in a state of movement, even if you yourself are stagnant.
1:41.7	Identity follows choice.
1:47.5	Your identity is not fixed. You don't have some personality you were born with that remains the same. Like a garden, your identity is either becoming more
1:52.8	polished and refined or more entangled, confused, and distracted. Your identity does not produce your
2:00.2	behavior. Your behavior shapes your identity.
2:04.3	You are responsible for who you become. You are the designer of your personality. In a brilliant book,
2:10.3	The Cult of Personality Testing, how personality tests are leading us to mis-educate our children,
2:15.7	mismanage our companies, and misunderstand ourselves.
2:18.5	Author Annie Murphy-Paul explains, using plenty of hard evidence, how personality tests,
	...

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