Atomic Habits - The carrot & stick
Last year my team and I read the popular book Atomic Habits by James Clear.?
The book contained 3 key lessons:
Being a big Stephen Covey and 7 Habits fan, this book spoke to my heart.? What I loved in the above lessons was that they built upon the ideas we got from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People back in 1989.
After getting excited about the concepts from the Atomic Habits book, I set out to build my new habits system.? I found ways to stack my habits as discussed in the book to be efficient and use triggers to keep my new system going.? After a few months in practice, I found that I was able to stick to my new system and I started seeing the micro gains from the small habit changes.
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Then I went on vacation for 2 weeks.
Those great triggers I had created in my system that kept the goodness going, like having a place that I read every night with my book set out, were no longer present.? My system broke down and I did not uphold my daily habits while on vacation.? When I got home from vacation, it was hard to get back into my system.
I realized I was missing some carrot or stick to reinforce my habit system when my triggers are not present or my energy is running low.? After some trial and error, I finally have found a new habit that serves as both a carrot and a stick to the overall system and after a few months of practice it is working.
As part of my habit system, I pay myself $20 for fulfilling my daily habits (carrot).? After about a week of this new carrot, I found it to be not that exciting.? However, at that time I wanted to buy myself a new golf club.? So, I picked out the club and put it in my cart and set that amount as my goal.? After a few weeks towards my new goal, I skipped a day.? I felt bad about it, but there was no penalty.? I decided to add the stick.? When I miss a day of my daily habits, I must pay back $50.? If I miss multiple days, I can quickly go into the negative and I will need to dig out of the hole before my next purchase.
This new carrot and stick addition to my habit system has been extremely successful.? I have gone 3 months with just 1 day of missed habits and that was due to illness.? However, I still paid the $50 that day to keep the system intact.? If I can give myself excuses for not paying, the whole thing starts to fall apart.? I have achieved multiple purchase goals for myself, some big and some small.? I have found the variety is nice to vary the time between my rewards.
I hope my personal experience with the Atomic Habits lessons and my success with my habits system will help you find inspiration towards your own habit system.
Executive Search ? Emerging Technology
1 年I also appreciated this book, Chris. Kudos for using it to motivate your team! A crucial lesson for me is to remember that adopting important habits may involve occasional slip-ups. It's inevitable to miss some days, but the key is to ensure you don't miss twice!
AVP Human Resources at Nationwide
1 年Thank you for sharing! I have been getting healthier based on the concepts in this book. I am going to think about how to apply the carrot and the stick.
Consumer insights | Social Analytics | CX (views stated are my own)
1 年My favorite concept from this book is about stacking behaviors and small changes on top of pre-existing ones. How have you seen this play out for you Chris Newlin?
Engineering Manager at Safelite | .NET, Vue.js, Azure, AWS | Driving Business Value and Innovation through High-Performing Teams
1 年Maybe I could do this and improve myself and get a new fly rod!
Very disciplined, Chris. Love the idea.