The power of reading ??

Atomic Habits Edition ??

One of the main reasons I read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear is because I wanted to nurture my habit-building in life.?

I listed the 10 most impactful, actionable’s I gained from this gem of a book! ??

You can thank me later! For now, enjoy reading the #Wednesday_Boost post and I hope it boosts and enriches your efforts to build the habits you have been meaning to for a long time. Here we go! ??

?? James Clear starts with his own story and goes on to say that “If things were going to improve, I was the one responsible for making it happen.”?

My take from the Book: This brief insight sets the tone for the whole “Atomic Habits” book and this post! It encourages all of us to ponder on what kind of person we want to become and work towards it through the power of small habits!

?? 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.?

My take from the Book: To become a runner takes time. One cannot let slow progress deter them or stop practicing after just the first win. No one becomes an excellent runner that way! Instead of chasing results, let’s better ourselves every day!

?? Quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision.

My take from the Book: List your habits, be they bad or good, irrespective of that, with no judgments. Choose the good ones, including new habits you want to cultivate and the ones you want to break! This tiny decision will take you a long way in life.

?? Your old identity can sabotage new plans for change. Build identity-based habits, focusing on whom you wish to become. It is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.

My take from the Book: Instead of wanting to become a wonderful writer, cultivate habits to become a consistent writer.

Develop habits that build your identity as being reliable. A reliable person shows up to write every day than procrastinate.

?? A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Therefore, it reduces the cognitive load and frees up mental capacity so that you can allocate your attention to other tasks.

My take from the Book: We learn to brush our teeth from a young age. We don’t plan, or spend energy to brush our teeth as soon as we wake up. It just happens. Understand that repeatedness and frequency are the keys!

?? The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. Based on them, the four laws of behavior change have evolved.

My take from the Book: When you are trying to build a habit, acting on it once brings you joy. The joy is your cue to act again, which leads to a craving. Higher your craving, the higher your motivation to respond to it and feel rewarded! One can apply these steps for a change in outcome, process, or their identity.

?Do you see the cycle? Let’s dive further into the four laws of behavioral change, shall we?

?? The 1st Law of behavior Change is to make it obvious.?

People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through.

Plan it: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].

My take from the book: Say you want to build a habit of reading, fix a time in the day for reading, and surround yourself with books that act as a reminder for you to read.?

?? 2nd law of behavioral change is making the habit attractive.?

Pairing an action you want to do with an action you need to do, referred to as temptation bundling, with habit stacking, makes the entire process more attractive.?

Habit stacking:

After [CURRENT HABIT), I will [NEW HABIT].

The habit of stacking + temptation bundling formula is:

After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. 2. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].

My take from the book: Let’s say you have a habit of sipping tea/coffee while reading fiction. But you also want to read nonfiction more often.

Well, prepare tea, your current habit, stacked with the habit of reading a page from a nonfiction book, and rewarding yourself to a page of fiction only when you read nonfiction, temptation bundling! Get the gist?

?? 3rd law of behavioral change is making the habit easy!

The point is to master the habit of showing up and reducing friction by decreasing the number of steps between you and your good habits.?

My take from the book: Implementing the two minutes rule; Let’s say you want to exercise regularly. First, develop the habit of showing up, no pressure to exercise! The decision to show up now is easier than the actual exercise and only takes 2 minutes! Once you’ve developed the habit of showing up, start small with your exercises.?

?? 4th law of behavioral change is to make a habit satisfying.

Making a habit satisfying increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time. It completes the habit loop. Habit tracking can have the addictive motivation and a source of satisfaction.

The habit stacking + habit tracking formula is: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT).

My take from the Book: Let’s say you are learning a new language on an app like Duolingo. Every day you learn, the app keeps your daily streak going on. The daily streak is so satisfying that it motivates you to keep learning further.

??? While that’s about building good habits, breaking a bad habit is equally important.?

With our bad habits, the immediate outcome usually feels good, but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits, it is the reverse: the immediate outcome is unenjoyable, but the ultimate outcome feels good.

So, inversion of the laws of behavioral change works best to break a habit.?

My take from the Book: If you want to reduce playing video games and start going for walks more often, then hide your video game console, and make the cue invisible.

Disconnect your PS5 to reduce craving to play, and no motivation to respond! Make playing video games unsatisfying by publicly committing to not playing them. So, every time you do, it doesn’t feel rewarding!

? That was long! But, I hope you found it worthwhile. Also, kudos to you for reading till almost the end of the post.

Super proud and cheers to those who are still keeping up with their 2023 New Year's resolutions even in May! ?????

To the rest of you out there, it’s never too late to work on your new habit! Trust me, I am putting my advice to good use too! ??

Happy habit forming, bundling, and tracking! ??

Comment below, what your new habit/habits gonna be. ??

Look out for my next post, same time next week ??? ♀?

P.S. I have used excerpts from the “Atomic Habits” book by James Clear as it is in the above post or slightly changed them to adjust the flow of the post.?