START FROM A SMALL EFFORTS WITH ATOMIC HABITS
INTRODUCTION
In Atomic Habits, James Clear gives readers advice on breaking any habit which negatively affects them—such as procrastinating or succumbing to an addiction—as well as replacing it with a positive habit, such as working efficiently or abstaining from an addiction. He claims that if the reader often displays negative habitual behavior, it is not caused by "you"—in that "you" specifically are inherently predisposed to perpetuating the habit, as the reader may believe—but rather by "your system": the reader's network of previously self-imposed mental barriers which now prevent the personal growth they need to break the habit. Clear writes that this "system" can also prevent the reader from naturally displaying positive habitual behavior, but says that they can break their system down over time.
Clear says that all habits are made of a "cue, craving, response, and reward”, which he exemplifies with people needing light to see: a person receives a "cue" that they need light to see inside of a room, they "crave" better vision and thus turn on a light in the room, they feel the "response" of better vision, and get the “Reward” of seeing clearly.
The book's "ethos" is that the readers' "lack of willpower" towards displaying positive habits is best fought with "getting 1% better each day": if they make a routine of displaying "atomic habits", positive habits which require little exertion, they build up their ability to display larger ones which, otherwise, they would not have enough willpower to do routinely. Clear says that "designing the right environment to build habits" is necessary for this; the reader should focus on the "deepest layer of behavior change"—changing their identity—which he simplifies by saying, "the goal isn’t to run a marathon, it’s to become a runner.” For this task, the reader should engage in self-actualization, finding out "who [they] want to be" and proving their new identity to themselves by solving the tasks required to become that person.
FUNDAMENTALS CHANGE
WHY TINY CHANGES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
This book, Atomic Habits is broken up into several sections, the first few chapters lay out the fundamentals and there are a lot of nuggets here that stood out to me. The author starts by laying out the idea that small habits can make a big difference, and I think that is very true. There are countless examples of our habits shaping our outcomes, but as Clear states, we often convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action, and it simply isn’t true. Getting up each day, and following basic principles that move you in the direction of the life you want or person you want to become will over time make a giant difference. This example can start as simple as doing the self care that you know works for you. In my case, it is healthy eating, daily weigh-ins, walking, writing, reading, hydrating, and meditating. When I do those few things every day, things just start to unstick in my life. If you can be a little bit better, 1% better each day it leads to massive change in the long run. On the other hand, when I am not doing those things every day I start to feel lazy and foggy and anti-social. Generally less confident in who I am and what I am working on. The writer lays it out very clearly stating that “your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.”
Progress can be slow and it can take a while before habits take you across a critical threshold. In the book this example is made by imagining there is an ice cube on the table in front of you and the room is cold and you can see your breath. It is currently twenty five degrees and ever so slowly the room begins to heat up. Twenty-six degrees, twenty-seven, twenty-eight and the ice cube is still on the table in front of you. Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, and still nothing happens. Then, thirty-two degrees and the ice begins to melt. A one degree shift, seemingly no different from the temperature increases before it, unlocks a huge change after it hits that critical threshold. Such a clear image of how progress or regression can work. It seems so simple when you think about it this way, and that is one of the many many reasons to love this book. He even goes on to say that “complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. Your work was not wasted; it is just being stored. All the action happens at thirty-two degrees.” Success requires determination and discipline so stick to it.
HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Success is the product of daily habits – not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.
Once a habit is formed, it is more unlikely to be forgotten.
The easy way to start new habits is:-
Meditation:- After I pour my cup of tea each morning, I will meditate for 5 minutes.
Exercise:- After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.
Study:- I will study chemistry for 20 minutes at 7:30a.m in my room.
Today's task:- After I write my to-do-list for the day, I will immediately begin my first task.
The true power of habits is that in time they meld into the background and become an integral part of your identity. Go to the gym three times a week long enough and then it’s not a question of whether you like it or not but just something you do because you’re a gym rat. The habit of going to the gym has given way to the identity of a fitness lover.
So we can think of habits and identity as a self-reinforcing loop. The more we work on the habit, the stronger the identity becomes—and the more automatic the habit is. “Of course, your habits are not the only actions that influence your identity,” Clear says, “but by virtue of their frequency they are usually the most important ones. ”So is it as easy as this? You just decide the type of person you want to be and then prove it with the right habit? Of course not—otherwise we’d all be successful without much effort.
The four laws of behavior change
The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious.
The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive.
The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy.
The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying.
Cue: it triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. It is a bit of information that predicts a reward.
Craving: the motivational force behind every habit. What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers. Every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state.
Response: the actual habit you perform, which can be a thought or an action. The response depends on your motivation’s strength and the amount of friction associated with completing it.
Reward: the end goal of every habit. They satisfy your craving and teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future.
The four steps to build a habit
HOW TO FIX BAD HABITS
It’s not easy to break a bad habit, but with effort and consistency, it’s not impossible to make significant changes in your life.
4 LAWS FOR BREAKING BAD HABITS
Make it invisible: Limit your exposure to the behavior that you’re trying to curb. If you want to quit smoking, this could look like changing your commute to avoid where you typically buy cigarettes or not having them in your home.
Make it unattractive: This step may take more time, but try to tell yourself that you’re not a person who participates in the behavior you want to shed. For example, no longer identify as a smoker by saying, “I’m not a smoker,” if someone offers you cigarettes, instead of “I’m trying to quit smoking.”
Make it difficult: You can try three different approaches for this step. Eliminate the behavior “cold-turkey,” gradually reduce the action over time or replace the action with a better, healthy substitute that produces the same rewarding feeling you get from doing the bad habit.
Make it unsatisfying: Typically, when you’ve achieved the first three steps, the action will no longer feel satisfying for you and you’ll be in a position to officially break the habit.
These four steps can be applied to any bad habit you want to change, Clear notes in the video, including scrolling for too long on social media or eating unhealthy foods.
ADVANCED TACTICS
The last few chapters of the book cover “advanced tactics”—or the points Clear wanted to make that didn’t fit in the Laws section, I believe. I’ll just give you a short overview of the most interesting ones here:
The areas where you are genetically predisposed to success are the areas where habits are more likely to be satisfying. And our genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it. They tell us what to work hard on.
The way to maintain motivation and achieve peak levels of desire is to work on tasks of “just manageable difficulty” (known as the Goldilocks Rule).
The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.
The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors. Reflection and review is a process that allows you to remain conscious of your performance over time.
Your identity will help you stick to habits but it can also become hard to keep to these habits if your role changes. So you need to redefine yourself such that you get to keep important aspects of your identity even if your particular role changes.