5 Life-Changing Lessons From Atomic Habits
Tiny changes transform into remarkable results.
Atomic Habits by James Clear is the holy grail when it comes to guides on habit and behaviour change.
In this book, Clear provides a highly effective, practical, and step-by-step framework to how to start good habits and how to end bad habits. This framework is based on the best techniques from behavioural science.
The purpose of the book is to help you achieve remarkable results more efficiently and methodically. It is filled with countless examples from smoking, reading, meditating, exercising, writing, biting nails, drinking more water, managing social media, sleep, and more.
If you’re looking to upgrade yourself and move towards becoming the best version of yourself, then Atomic Habits is a read for you.
5 Life-Changing Lessons From Atomic Habits
1 — The Power of Compounding
“1% better every day for a year will compound to nearly 38 times better”.
1% really does matters over time. Clear begins the book with a very compelling story of a cycling coach who helped the British cycling team make lots of very small improvements which added up to big results.
Tiny changes in our habits can change the trajectory of our lives in ways that we can’t even notice until many years into the future looking back. In both good ways and bad. You are your habits. Far too often, we convince ourselves of one-night miracles or that massive success is only possible through massive actions. However, it is the tiny improvements, that aren’t even noticeable at first, that create incredible change.
If you make a very small 1% improvement in your health, your time management, or your relationships and keep that improvement over the next year or 365 days, that 1% improvement can really pay off. This can take off exponentially if you make a 1% improvement today, and then make another additional 1% improvement tomorrow, and repeat making these small improvements over the next year.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous.
2 — Goals vs Systems
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of the systems”.
The way we generally think about goals is slightly flawed. We want to achieve something and hence go ahead and set a goal for ourselves, but we don’t think beyond. Often, we are so tunnel-visioned that we forget how to set up steps to achieve our goals and sometimes when we do reach our goals we don’t know what to do next.
Both successful and unsuccessful people have the same goals but only a select few achieve them. So then the question is what’s the difference between them and how important is setting up the right goals?
Fundamentally goals are about the results you want but systems are about the process that leads to it. Our systems can replace motivation with routine. For example, instead of telling yourself “I should do some exercise to get fit”, you’re saying “It’s Monday — time to exercise”.
3 — Change Your Identity
The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.
The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. True behaviour change is identity change. The ultimate aim for any habit is to change your identity into something you want to become. So instead of an outcome-driven habit or action, you need to shift towards an identity-driven habit system
The Three Layers of Behavior Change:
Outcomes: changing your results, e.g. losing weight. Most of the goals you set are at this level
Process: changing your habits and systems, e.g. developing a meditation practice. Most of the habits you build live at this level
Identity: changing your beliefs, e.g. your worldview or self-image. Most of the beliefs, assumptions, and biases you hold are associated with this level
4 — The Habit Loop
A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Their ultimate purpose is to solve problems on an auto-pilot mode (with as little energy and thought as possible).
Any habit is essentially a feedback loop of four phases:
1 — Cue (Make it obvious): The starting point or simply, what triggers your brain to initiate a behaviour. The bit of information that predicts a reward.
2 — Craving (Make it attractive): the motivational force behind every habit. You don’t crave the habit itself, but the change in state it leads to or the pleasure associated with it (e.g. you do not crave smoking a cigarette, you crave the feeling of relief it provides).
3 — Response (Make it easy): the actual habit/action you perform, as a thought or action. Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and the amount of friction associated with the behaviour. If the motivation is greater than the friction you need to overcome to perform the action this phase will be initiated.
4 — Reward (Make it satisfying): the end goal of every habit. We chase rewards because they satisfy our cravings and teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future.
Let’s apply these practical tips to someone who is looking to work out consistently.
Set your athletic clothes, shoes, water bottle and bag somewhere they are clearly visible in your room (cue). Follow a simple workout routine that’s fun and efficient that fits within your schedule (craving). Train at home, or choose a gym that is as close to home as possible (response). Log the workout in your journal or calendar. Progress makes you feel good (Reward).
5 — The Goldilocks Rule
“Start small, be consistent and keep moving”
It is important for us to not get carried away when setting goals and targets. Human motivation peaks right at the edge of comfort, just slightly challenging from their present abilities, neither too hard nor too easy. Therefore it is important that whenever you are starting a new habit, the set expectations are not too insane. Build up slowly so that these new challenges keep you engaged and motivated.
Atomic Habits is useful to you if you want to develop better habits, quit bad ones or find ways to increase your motivation.
In my opinion, this is a must-read book and deserves a special place on everyone’s bookshelves.
James Clear’s website is very useful, his newsletter is simple and helpful, and he is a great follow on Twitter.
