Atomic Habits
Abhinav Mathur, PhD
Passionate about Startups, Climate Change, Sustainability, and Education. Impacting global education and sustainability through the world largest and most loved Teacher Capacity Building platform Chalklit
An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Habits have aided all human achievement and has been one of the biggest obstacle as well. These can be structured as the "compound interest" of self-improvement. If one can just get 1 percent better in your habits every day, the long-run effect can be huge. The book advices against trying to make major changes. Concentrate on identifying and changing your small habits – your atomic habits – as the building blocks of remarkable results.
"If 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. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." – James Clear
"If 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. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." – James Clear
Just as atoms make up a molecule small atomic habits make up our behaviour and attitudes. It's always difficult to make sweeping changes in a persons habit to the extent that it might be better to not to look for quantum leaps.
Instead, it might be better to make tiny changes – even 1 percent improvements – to your daily habits. Those little changes when attempted consistently and is combined over a significant enough time can produce dramatic improvements.
The Habit Loop is identified as a four-step loop which underlies all human behaviour and which when repeated over a period of time leads to the formation of new habits that would stick. These can be used to build better habits and generate small improvements which will compound to generate seizable gains. That Habit loop is illustrated below
Goals articulate the results you want to achieve but what's more important are the processes and systems you use to try and achieve those results. Your habits will make up those systems. Use these laws to upgrade your habits and you automatically change your trajectory and achieve more.
Law #1 – Make it obvious
The best way to initiative a new habit is to ensure that you identify cues for your actions throughout the day and to link these with a clearly stated implementation intention: "Whenever situation X arises, I will do Y".
Law #2 – Make it attractive
You should ensure that you make the performing of a habit attractive, so that acting on that will become rewarding. Reward yourself by something tempting and ensure that anticipation of getting those rewards is motivating enough for you to get into action.
Law #3 – Make it easy
You should ensure that it is easy for you to continue to do your habit. One way to achieve this is to focus on learning by doing rather than learning by reading or thinking about it. Make good behaviours automatic through repetition.
Law #4 – Make it satisfying
The best way to get a habit to stick is to give yourself an immediate reward whenever you do it. Even a small reward given instantly will work. This will increase the odds that you'll repeat it over and over.