The secrets to forming good habits that last.

Individuals, as well as organizations, all have habits that either block us from succeeding, or help us achieve our goals. Personally, I am fascinated by those outstanding leaders in their fields who seem to have all the right ingredients that drive them to achieve abundant success. Lately, I’ve been reading a fantastic book called Atomic Habits, written by the world-renowned habits expert, James Clear, to further understand what makes a good habit sustainable, and how you can break a bad one.

In his book, James Clear focuses on the Four Laws to Create Good Habits. These are:

1. Make it obvious
2. Make it attractive
3. Make it easy
4. Make it satisfying

In this article, I won’t go through each of these laws in detail (you’ll have to read the book for that!) but I wanted to share with you the most surprising, fascinating and pertinent insights about forming positive habits that will stay with me forever. This book is so important for me right now because in my organization, Daimler, we are in the midst of an incredibly fast-paced digital transformation, so for us it’s never been so important to shed the bad habits and patterns of the past, and apply new productive and positive habits in their place.

The law of compounding habits

You’ve heard of the law of compound interest, but what about the law of compounding habits? James Clear reveals that the power of good habits is so great, that when you start implementing positive habits, the results of your behavior naturally compound. He writes, “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compounding interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.” In other words, the more frequently you practice good habits, the more you achieve the results you desire. How brilliant is that!

Identity-based habits

This point reminded me a lot of Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with WHY’ philosophy – where creating good habits, and crushing bad ones, have a higher chance of succeeding when they are intrinsically linked to your, or your organization’s identity and purpose. James Clear believes that “true behavior change is identity change”. For example, if you are looking to improve your focus and productivity, rather than saying, “I want to be more focused and productive”, instead state, “I’m a focused and productive person.” This ties directly into who and what you are – focusing on the self rather than the behavior.

Good habits create freedom

James Clear dispels the myth that habits “make life dull” and take up too much time and energy. The fact is, that as habits are created, your brain’s activity actually decreases. He writes, “Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience.” These are mental scripts that you automatically play to help solve a recurring problem. For example, let’s say you started exercising to alleviate stress. So, when the next stressful situation arise, it becomes second nature to exercise. These automatic responses actually create space in your mind so you can focus your cognitive attention on other tasks. In this sense, habits actually give your life more freedom to focus on more important things.

The key questions you need to ask yourself

Like most things, choosing your habits will result in more success when you really play to own personal strengths. The best approach is to focus on implementing positive habits that will be the most gratifying to you as an individual. These are the questions that James Clear suggests you ask yourself to help you hone in on the right habits for you, or your organization:

• 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?

As an organization, we are incredibly focused on crushing our ‘blockers’ to success. And to do this, it takes every individual on the team to reflect on our own best ways of working, and start implementing ‘atomic habits’ that will shape our organization’s future. I’ve already started to implement them in my personal and professional life, and so far, so good! I hope you find these just as useful as I have.

Sabine Scheunert

Please feel free to comment and discuss on this post, and please like and share if it resonates with your working life. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on how you believe individuals and organizations can create ‘atomic habits’.

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