Atomic Habits - Explained (A new series!)
Atomic Habits - Explained (A new series!)
A playbook for putting the James Clear's best ideas into action
šHello, my friend and a Happy Holiday Season to you! Iām looking forward to spending the next two weeks connecting with friends and family, doing some reflection on 2023 and planning for 2024 (more to come on that!)ā¦ and getting a DOG! Shhhhhhh on the last part. Itās a surprise for my kids. Should be excitingā¦ and interesting. Before I head off, I wanted to drop something that Iāve been working on that Iām really excited about.
So if youāre interested in how you can improve your habits in the year ahead, read onā¦
Episode 28 - Atomic Habits - Explained
Okay, so hereās what Iāve been working on:
Iām experimenting with a new series Iām tentatively calling āExplained.ā Let me know if you think of a better name. But basically the idea is to take my favorite books on self-improvement and break them down for you in really simple, easy-to-digest and maybe even entertaining (?) terms.
Iām starting with Atomic Habits. Why? Because itās arguably the book thatās most influenced my life over the last 5+ years.
So hereās what I do in this episode: I take you through the book from start to finish. I walk you through my favorite parts. And I describe how Iām personally taking the concepts from the book and applying them in my own life including whatās worked andā¦ what hasnāt.
Iād love for you to give it a listen (or a watch) and give me your honest feedback. Iām taking a bit of inspiration from David Senraās Founders podcast in terms of the monologue styleā¦ Iām slightly worried that itās a little too much āmeā but on the other hand, I think this format could be a way to deliver valuable ideas from books like Atomic Habits in a way that people will find easily digestible and, dare I say, maybe even fun to listen to. Againā¦. let me know what you think!
The Top 28 quotes from Atomic Habits
I mentioned in the episode that Iād pull these out for my newsletter readers - some may be slightly paraphrased but hopefully they donāt lose the point. Presented in no particular, but they do have one thing in common: I love them all.
āThe process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.ā
āAn atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but the source of incredible power, a component of the system of compound growth.ā
āHabits are the compound interest of self improvement. Get 1% better each day and youāll end up 37x better by the end of the year. Get 1% worse each day, and you decline to zero.ā
āEach day looks insignificant on its own. It's only when looking back that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent. A slight change in daily habits is akin to shifting the route of an airplane by a few degrees. Eventually you end up in a very different place. You should be far more concerned about your current trajectory than your current results.ā
āYour outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. In other words, you get what you repeat.ā
āTime magnifies the margin between success and failure. Good habits make time your ally; bad habits, make time your enemy.ā
āGoals are good for setting direction, but systems are best for making progress.ā
āWe do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.ā
āOutcomes are what you get. Processes are what you do, and identity is what you believe. The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is identity.ā
āThere are 4 steps to building a habit: Cue, craving, response, and reward. Cue is something that triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. Craving is the motivational change or the desired state of change that you want to see. Response is the actual habit that you perform, and reward is what satisfies your craving and basically starts the whole feedback loop and habit cycle over again.ā
āWhen you schedule something, it transforms it from intention to plan.ā
āEnvironment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.ā
āFor our good habits, we want to reduce the friction it takes to accomplish them. And for our bad habits, we want to increase the friction associated with them. In other words, how can we design a world where itās easy to do whatās right?ā
āOne of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the norm.ā
āHabits are solutions to ancient desires.ā
āI donāt have to. I get to.ā
āEach time you repeat an action, you are activating a particular neural circuit associated with that habit. This means putting in your reps is one of the most critical steps you can take to encoding a new habit.ā
āWhen you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. The point is to master the habit of showing up instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start. Do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. As you master the art of showing up, the first two minutes simply become a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine.ā
āThe first three laws, make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, they increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of behavior change, make it satisfying, increases the odds that the behavior will be repeated next time. It completes the habit loop.ā
āThe cost of good habits is up front, the benefits are later; vice versa for bad habits.ā
āWhat is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided. If we want to establish good habits, we need to inject them with a bit of instant gratification.ā
āIncentives start a habit. Identity sustains a habit.ā
āThe first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.ā
āOne of the best ways to ensure your habits remain satisfying over the long run is to pick behaviors that align with your personality and skills; work hard on the things that come easy.ā
āCan one tiny change transform your life? It's unlikely you would say so, but what if you made another and another and another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change.ā
āIf you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again, not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.ā
āThe secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements. It's remarkable what you can build if you just don't stopā¦ That's the power of atomic habits, tiny changes, remarkable results.ā
āAnything wise in these pages, you should credit to the many experts who preceded me, anything foolish. It is my error.ā
Hopefully youāll agree that there are some gems in there. I had to include the last one because Iām a sucker for humility.
Okay, thatās it for today, but before you goā¦. how about some nutritious additions to your content diet?
Content Diet
Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear
If itās not obvious to you by now, I love this book. Hopefully this newsletter and my podcast on the topic whet your appetite to buy the book. In case youāre interested, I started with the audio book and almost immediately afterwards bought the print version because I knew I wanted to highlight sections and make tons of notes. Iāve read it probably 5 times nowā¦ and it still holds up very, very well from 5 years ago.
Podcast: James Clear x Tim Ferriss
Clear has been on a ton of podcasts. Maybe heāll read this and decide to come on mine when he comes out with his next book. You really canāt go wrong with any of his appearances, so pick your favorite show and dive in. I did want to point out this particular appearance on the The Tim Ferriss Show though (I believe itās Clearās second) because he gave an incredible breakdown of how he constructed this book and how built a really amazing plan to turn it into a bestseller. If any of that is up your alley, youāll really enjoy it.
My own James Clear inspired articlesā¦
In case you want to dive deeper into any of these concepts.
- How Iām Planning an Epic 2023 (need an update to this!)
- An intentional approach to 2023 (okay Iām starting to feel like a slacker vs. last yearās Greg)
- You think you know who you are? Prove it. (On identity-based habits).
- Flow (On tackling tasks just outside your comfort zone).
- Control your environment before it controls you.
Atomic Habits - Explained. The YouTube version.
I know you want to see my mug on your big screen talking to you about all things Atomic Habits. Well, donāt worryā¦ Iām here to deliver:
Thatās it for this week, my friend. Iāll be back soon with thoughts on 2024 planning.
If you get a chance to listen to this Atomic Habits episode, please let me know what you think.
Until then, enjoy the holidays, my friend!
Greg