My Perspective

• I first heard of this book – Atomic Habits – when the author, James Clear, did the Podcast rounds when the book first came out in late 2018 / early 2019 (this podcast episode was a favourite). On the various podcasts I enjoyed, and resonated with, many of his viewpoints on habits, but what convinced me to buy the book and read it in full was how consistently the book was – and still is – being praised on Twitter. A week didn’t go by for months where a prominent figure I respect didn’t mention it.
• The book proclaims itself to be the ‘most comprehensive guide on how to change your habits and get 1% better every day,’ and is fundamentally focused on how to help the reader create – and critically stick to – new habits as well as break bad habits for good, regardless of what area are they in: professional, health, wealth, hobbies, personal etc.
• A decent percentage of what is covered in the book I’d describe as ‘basic productivity and habit information’, some of which are covered in the posts I wrote back in 2016 on Forming Habits & How to Break Bad Habits & Routines. Having said that, I think James Clear’s book is probably the most comprehensive, simple to follow and digest book on the topic I’ve read.
• I am so impressed by the book that it has become my ‘go to’ book recommendation for friends and family struggling looking for guidance on how to continue a new habit or kick an old one.
• There were 8 key points / messages from the book which really resonated with me and that were my key takeaways:
  • Goals & systems – A number of authors have spoken about how they believe that systems are more important than goals, but I liked Clear’s slightly different perspective: ‘Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.’ Why does he hold this view? Because ‘You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.’
  • Habits should free up cognitive load, not use it up – As Clear himself says: ‘Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.’
  • Power of environment design – I absolutely love environment design and apply it to many aspects of my life. As Clear says: ‘Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.’ I use this in everything from keeping rubbish food out of the house, to reminding myself to complete household tasks to setting out my workout kit the night before.
  • Importance of community in building successful new habits – This is something I’ve been a massive proponent of for a long time, but I like the examples that Clear uses to inspire readers to join a community or ‘culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour.’
  • Repetition = perfection – ‘If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.’ Even when you really don’t want to or feel sub-par, ‘turning up’ for your habit is still an absolute must. ‘All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behaviour, a process known as automaticity. Automaticity is the ability to perform a behaviour without thinking about each step, which occurs when the non-conscious mind takes over.’ Once you achieve automaticity, you are on the inevitable path towards progress and maybe even perfection. There were a couple of other quotes which make the same point which I liked:
    • ‘The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved.’
    • ‘The most effective form of motivation is progress.’

• • There is no magic timeline for habit formation – You read so much about how long it takes to build a habit, but I think Clear has it spot on when he says: ‘There is nothing magical about time passing with regard to habit formation. It doesn’t matter if it’s been twenty-one days or thirty days or three hundred days. What matters is the rate at which you perform the behaviour. You could do something twice in thirty days, or two hundred times. It’s the frequency that makes the difference.’
  • Habits aren’t the end goal – I really liked how Clear expressed this point. When you start going really deep with habits, you can end up focusing so much on the habit itself, and getting better at building new habits, rather than remembering why you actually wanted to start the habit in the first place. As Clear says: ‘In a sense, every habit is just an obstacle to getting what you really want. Dieting is an obstacle to getting fit. Meditation is an obstacle to feeling calm. Journaling is an obstacle to thinking clearly: you don’t actually want the habit itself. What you really want is the outcome the habit delivers.’
  • Think carefully about where you want to compete – This point is huge, and in my perspective applicable far outside the sphere of habits. ‘The secret to maximising your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition. This is just as true with habit change as it is with sports and business. Habits are easier to perform, and more satisfying to stick with, when they align with your natural inclinations and abilities.’ Clear goes on to say that ‘Competence is highly dependent on context,’ and ‘…genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.’
• In addition to my recommendation for the book itself, I’d also suggest signing up to Clear’s weekly newsletter called 3-2-1 Thursday. The tag line for the weekly newsletter is ‘Working to deliver the most wisdom per word of any newsletter on the web’, which is a lot to live up to, but he manages it! This is one of the 3 – 4 newsletters I read every week.
• Detailed below are the key messages and phrases that resonated with me while reading the book. If any of the below spark your interest I’d suggest you read the book yourself, you can find it here. As always, anything in speech marks is a direct quote from the book, and any typos or mistakes are almost certainly mine!

Book Notes

Introduction: My Story

• ‘We all face challenges in life. This injury was one of mine, and the experience taught me a critical lesson: changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.’
• ‘The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits – cue, craving, response, and reward – and the four laws of behaviour change then evolve out of these steps.’

The Fundamentals – Why Tiny Changes Make a Big Difference

 

1 – The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits

• ‘Brailsford had been hired to put British Cycling on a new trajectory. What made him different from previous coaches was his relentless commitment to a strategy he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do.’
• ‘…if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.’
• ‘Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.’
• ‘But when we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, be replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalising little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results. It’s the accumulation of many missteps – a 1 percent decline here and there – that eventually leads to a problem.’
• ‘You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results… Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.’
• Examples of Positive Compounding: Productivity, Knowledge Relationships
• Examples of Negative Compounding: Stress, Negative Thoughts, Outrage
• ‘The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.’
• ‘Eventually, I began to realise that my results had very little to do with goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed…Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.’
• ‘Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.’
• ‘Goals restrict your happiness…A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can be successful in many different forms, not just the one you first envision.’
• ‘You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.’
• ‘This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits – a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.’

2 – How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)

• ‘Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what you believe.’
• ‘The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.’
• ‘…your habits are not the only actions that influence your identity, but by virtue of their frequency they are usually the most important ones.’
• ‘The concept of identity-based habits is our first introduction to another key theme in this book: feedback loops. Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits. It’s a two-way Street.’
• ‘Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.’

3 – How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps

• ‘Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience.’
• ‘Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.’
• ‘…when you have your habits dialled in and the basics of life are handled and done, your mind is free to focus on new challenges and master the next set of problems. Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future.’
• ‘The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.’
• ‘In summary, the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving, and ultimately, becomes associated with the cue…this cycle is known as the feedback loop.’

	How to Create a Good Habit
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.
	How to Break a Bad Habit
Inversion of the 1st law (Cue)	Make it invisible.
Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving)	Make it unattractive.
Inversion of the 3rd law (Response)	Make it difficult.
Inversion of the 4th law (Reward)	Make it unsatisfying.

• ‘The Four Laws of Behaviour Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) what is attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.’

The 1st Law – Make It Obvious

 

4 – The Man Who Didn’t Look Right

• ‘…you don’t need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin. You can notice an opportunity and take action without dedicating conscious attention to it. This is what makes habits useful.’
• ‘The first step to changing bad habits is to be in the lookout for them. [Use the Habits Scorecard]’
• ‘The process of behaviour change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.’

5 – The Best Way to Start a New Habit

• ‘…people who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through.’
• ‘Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.’
• ‘The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.’
• ‘One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behaviour on top. This is called habit stacking.’ [BJ Fogg)
• ‘Habit stacking works best when the cue is highly specific and immediately actionable.’
• ‘The implementation intention formula is: I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].’
• ‘The habit stacking formula is: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].’

6 – Motivation Is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More

• ‘People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are… Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour.’
• ‘The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight.’
• ‘Every habit is initiated by a cue, and we are more likely to notice cues that stand out.’
• ‘If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment.’
• ‘Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.’
• ‘The power of context also reveals an important strategy, habits can be easier to change in a new environment… It is easier to associate a new habit with a new context than to build a new habit in the face of competing cues.’

7 – The Secret to Self-Control

• ‘The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least. It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you dint have to use it very often.’
• ‘Bad habits are autocatalytic: the process feeds itself. They foster the feelings they try to numb. You feel bad so you eat junk food. Because you eat junk food, you feel bad.’
• ‘This is the secret to self-control. Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.’
• ‘Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.’

The 2nd Law – Make it Attractive

8 – How to Make a Habit Irresistible

• ‘When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it. Gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right before they place a bet, not after they win… It is the anticipation of a reward – not the fulfilment of it – that gets us to take action.’
• ‘We need to make our habits attractive because it is the expectation of a rewarding experience that motivates us to act in the first place. This is where a strategy known as temptation bundling comes into play.’
• ‘Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do… You’re more likely to find a behaviour attractive if you get to do one of your favourite things at the same time.’

9 – The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits

• ‘We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them… Often, you follow the habits of your culture without thinking, without questioning, and sometimes without remembering.’
• ‘…one study found that the higher your best friend’s IQ at age eleven or twelve, the higher your IQ would be at age fifteen, even after controlling for natural levels of intelligence. We soak up the qualities and practices of those around us.’
• ‘One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour.’
• ‘Nothing sustained motivation better then belonging to the tribe.’
• ‘What changing your habits means challenging the tribe, Change is unattractive. When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, Change is very attractive.’
• ‘We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).’

10 – How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits

• ‘A craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive. Your brain did not evolve with a desire to smoke cigarettes or to check Instagram or to play video games. At a deep level, you simply want to reduce uncertainty and relieve anxiety, to win social acceptance and approval, or to achieve status.’
• ‘To summarise, the specific cravings you feel and habits you perform are really an attempt to address your fundamental underlying motives. Whenever a habit successfully addresses a motive, you develop a craving to do it again… Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings, and we can use this insight to our advantage rather than to our detriment.’
• ‘Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attractive.’ [e.g. you don’t have to cook your family dinner, you get to]
• ‘Say you want to feel happier in general. Find something that makes you truly happy – like petting your dog or taking a bubble bath – and then create a short routine that you perform every time before you do the thing you love… Eventually, you’ll begin to associate the short routing with being in a good mood.’
• ‘The key to finding and fixing the causes of your bad habits is to reframe the associations you have about them. It’s not easy, but if you can reprogram your predictions, you can transform a hard habit into an attractive one.’
• ‘Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before w difficult habit.’

The 3rd Law – Make It Easy

11 – Walk Slowly, but Never Backward

• ‘Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practising.’
• ‘If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.’
• ‘All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behaviour, a process known as automaticity. Automaticity is the ability to perform a behaviour without thinking about each step, which occurs when the non-conscious mind takes over.’
• ‘There is nothing magical about time passing with regard to habit formation. It doesn’t matter if it’s been twenty-one days or thirty days or three hundred days. What matters is the rate at which you perform the behaviour. You could do something twice in thirty days, or two hundred times. It’s the frequency that makes the difference.’

12 – The Law of Least Effort

• ‘In a sense, every habit is just an obstacle to getting what you really want. Dieting is an obstacle to getting fit. Meditation is an obstacle to feeling calm. Journaling is an obstacle to thinking clearly: you don’t actually want the habit itself. What you really want is the outcome the habit delivers.’
• ‘This is why it is crucial to make your habits so easy that you’ll do them even when you don’t feel like it. If you can make your good habits more convenient, you’ll be more likely to follow through on them.’
• ‘The idea behind make it easy is not to only do easy things. The idea is to make it easy as possible in the moment to do things that payoff in the long run.’
• ‘Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life.’
• ‘Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones.’
• ‘Prime the environment for future use.’
• ‘Human behaviour follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.’

13 – How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule

• ‘Every day, there are a handful of moments that deliver an outsized impact. I refer to these little choices as decisive moments. The moment you choose between driving your car or riding your bike… These choices are a fork in the road.’
• ‘When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version.’
• ‘…once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.’
• ‘The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved.’
• ‘At some point, once you’ve established the habit and you’re showing up each day, you can combine the Two-Minute Rule with a technique we call habit shaping to scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal.’
• ‘The more you ritualise the beginning of the process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.’
• ‘Standardise before you optimise. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.’

14 – How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible

• ‘Commitment devices are useful because they enable you to take advantage of good intentions before you can fall victim to temptation.’ [Also known as Ulysses Pacts]
• ‘Commitment devices increase the odds that you’ll do the right thing in the future by making bad habits difficult in the present.’
• ‘Onetime actions that lock in good habits:

Nutrition	Happiness
Buy a water filter to clean your water.	Get a dog.
Use smaller plates to reduce caloric intake	Move to a friendly, social neighbourhood.
Sleep	General Health
Buy a good mattress.	Get vaccinated.
Get blackout curtains.	Buy good shoes to avoid back pain
Remove your television from your bedroom.	Buy a supportive chair or a standing desk
Productivity	Finance
Unsubscribe from e-mails.	Enrol in an automatic savings plan.
Turn off notifications & mute group chats.	Set up automatic bill pay.
Set your phone to silent.	Cut cable service.
Use email filters to clear up your inbox	Ask service providers to lower your bills.
Delete games and social media apps on your phone

• ‘When you automate as much of your life as possible, you can spend your effort on the tasks machines cannot do yet. Each habit that we hand over to the authority of technology frees up time and energy to pour into the next stage of growth.’
• ‘When working in your favour, automation can make your good habits inevitable and your bad habits impossible. It is the ultimate way to lock in future behaviour rather than relying on willpower in the moment.’

The 4th Law – Make It Satisfying

15 – The Cardinal Rule of Behaviour Change

• ‘We are more likely to repeat a behaviour when the experience is satisfying. This is entirely logical… Pleasure teaches your brain that a behaviour is worth remembering and repeating.’
• ‘What is rewarded is repeated. What is punished is avoided. You learn to do in the future based on what you were rewarded for doing (or punished for doing in the past. Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them.’
• ‘The first three laws of behaviour change – make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy – increase the odds that a behaviour will be performed this time. The fourth law of behaviour change – make it satisfying – increases the odds that a behaviour will be repeated next time. It completes the habit loop.’
• ‘…the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.’
• ‘Our preference for instant gratification reveals an important truth about success: because of how we are wired, most people will spend all day chasing quick hits of satisfaction. The road less travelled is the road of delayed satisfaction. If you’re willing to wait for the rewards, you’ll face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes, the last mile is always the least crowded.’
• ‘The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful – even if it’s in a small way. The feeling of success is a signal that your habit paid off and that the work was worth the effort.’
• ‘Reinforcement ties your habit to an immediate reward, which makes it satisfying when you finish.’
• ‘Immediate reinforcement helps maintain motivation in the short term while you’re waiting for the long-term rewards to arrive.’

16 – How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day

• ‘Habit tracking is powerful because it leveraged multiple Laws of Behaviour Change. It simultaneously makes a behaviour obvious, attractive, and satisfying.’
• ‘Habit tracking also keeps us honest. Most of us have a distorted view of our own behaviour. We think we act better than we do. Measurement offers one way to overcome our blindness to our own behaviour and notice what’s really going on each day.’
• ‘The most effective form of motivation is progress.’
• ‘Tracking can become its own form of reward.’
• ‘Don’t break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive. Never miss twice. If you miss one one, try to get back on track as quickly as possible.’
• ‘The human mind wants to “win” whatever game is being played…When we choose the wrong measurement, we get the wrong behaviour.’

17 – How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything

• ‘The more immediate the pain, the less likely the behaviour. If you want to prevent bad habits and eliminate unhealthy behaviours, then adding an instant cost to the action is a great way to reduce the odds.’
• ‘A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through. Then you find one or two people to act as your accountability partners and sign off on the contract with you.’

How to Create a Good Habit

	The 1st Law (Cue) – Make it Obvious
1.1	Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them
1.2	Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]
1.3	Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]”
1.4	Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.
	The 2nd Law (Craving) – Make it Attractive
2.1	Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
2.2	Join a culture where your desired behaviour is the normal behaviour.
2.3	Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
	The 3rd Law (Response) – Make it Easy
3.1	Reduce fiction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits.
3.2	Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.
3.3	Master the decisive moment. Optimise the small choices that deliver outsized impact.
3.4	Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two mins or less.
3.5	Automate your habits. Invest in technology and one time purchases that lock in future behaviour.
	The 4th Law (Reward) – Make it Satisfying
4.1	Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit.
4.2	Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits.
4.3	Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.”
4.4	Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately

How to Break a Bad Habit

	Inversion of the 1st Law (Cue) – Make it Invisible
1.5	Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.
	Inversion of the 2nd Law (Craving) – Make it Unattractive
2.4	Reframe your mind-set. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.
	Inversion of the 3rd Law (Response) – Make it Difficult
3.6	Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits.
3.7	Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you.
	Inversion of the 4th Law (Reward) – Make it Unsatisfying
4.5	Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behaviour.
4.6	Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful.

 

Advanced Tactics – How to Go from Being Merely Good to Being Truly Great

 

18 – The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don’t)

• ‘The secret to maximising your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition. This is just as true with habit change as it is with sports and business. Habits are easier to perform, and more satisfying to stick with, when they align with your natural inclinations and abilities.’
• ‘Competence is highly dependent on context.’
• ‘…genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.’
• ‘Learning to play a game where the odds are in your favour is critical for maintaining motivation and feeling successful. In theory, you can enjoy almost anything. In practice, you are more likely to enjoy the things that come easily to you.’
• ‘As you explore different options, there are a series of questions you can ask yourself to continually narrow in on the habits and areas that will be most satisfying to you: What feels like fun to me, but work to others?… What makes me lose track of time?… Where do I get greater returns than the average person?… What comes naturally to me?’
• ‘When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different. By combining your skills, you reduce the level of competition, which makes it easier to stand out.’
• ‘Our genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it. They tell us what to work hard on.’

19 – The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work

• ‘The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty.’
• ‘The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.’
• ‘The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start detailing our progress to seek novelty.’
• ‘Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let like get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work toward it with purpose; amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life.’
• ‘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.’

20 – The Downside of Creating Good Habits

• ‘The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors.’
• ‘Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery’
• ‘Reflection and review enables the long-term improvement of all habits because it makes you aware of your mistakes and helps you consider possible paths for improvement. Without reflection, we can make excuses, create rationalisations, and lie to ourselves.’
• ‘Improvement is not just about learning habits, it’s also about fine-tuning them. Reflection and review ensures that you spend your time on the right things and make course corrections, whenever necessary…’
• ‘When you cling too tightly to one identity, you become brittle. Lose that one thing and you lose yourself…When chosen effectively, an identity can be flexible rather than brittle. Like water flowing around an obstacle, your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them.’

Conclusion – The Secret to Results that Last

• ‘Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine.’
• ‘Whenever you’re looking to improve, you can rotate through the Four Laws of Behaviour Change until you find the next bottleneck. Make it obvious. Make it attractive. Make it easy. Make it satisfying. Round and round. Always looking for the next way to get 1 percent better.’

Appendix

Little Lessons from the Four Laws

• ‘Awareness comes before desire.’
• ‘Happiness is simply the absence of desire.’
• ‘It is the idea of pleasure that we chase.’
• ‘Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems.’
• ‘With a big enough why you can overcome any how.’
• ‘Being curious is better than being smart.’
• ‘Emotions drive behaviour.’
• ‘We can only be rational and logical after we have been emotional.’
• ‘Your response tends to follow your emotions.’
• ‘Suffering drives progress.’
• ‘Your actions reveal how badly you want something.’
• ‘Reward is on the other side of sacrifice.’
• ‘Self-control is difficult because it is not satisfying.’
• ‘Our expectations determine our satisfaction.’
• ‘Satisfaction = Liking – Wanting’
• ‘The pain of failure correlates to the height of expectation.’
• ‘Feelings come both before and after the behaviour.’
• ‘Desire initiates. Pleasure sustains.’
• ‘Hope declines with experience and is replaced by acceptance.’

How to Apply These Ideas to Business —- atomichabits.com/business

How to Apply These Ideas to Parenting — atomichabits.com/parenting

 

Photo Credit.