Atomic Habits by James Clear. Tiny Changes, REMARKABLE RESULTS!

“Packed with evidence-based self-improvement strategies, Atomic Habits will teach you how to design habits that work for you rather than against you.”

I often find that I’m learning and relearning in new stages of mind and body growth. Our brain development begins to stall at the age of 25 and we lead life with a fully matured prefrontal cortex. At this stage in our journeys we should have figured out how to control our impulses, to plan and prioritize well, and to organize our life in a way that gets us to our end goal. At the time of writing this, I am 27 going on 28. In retrospect I feel like 2 going on 3. Relearning how to navigate new found purpose, passion, and growth with my newfound brain. Habits and tactics that worked for a previous version of me, no longer seem to be effective. In the past two years I have done a vast amount of cellf work, the crawl, and I am ready to put that groveling into action, the walk. 

The guidance I sought came in the form of a book titled Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results by James Clear.

“If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves 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.”

Atomic Habits is an easy read that offers direct and tangible advice and resources on how to make formidable changes in your everyday routines that will progressively enhance the quality of your life. This book teaches the reader that big changes start at the smallest level. Steps as opposed to leaps. The content is separated into 4 major laws and their inversions.

The 1st Law: Make it Obvious.

Talks about designing your environment to make the cues of good habits obvious and visible. Inversely, reducing exposure to the cues of your bad habits by removing them from your environment.

The 2nd Law: Make it Attractive.

Talks about using temptation bundling to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. Inversely, reframing your mindset by highlighting the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

The 3rd Law: Make it Easy.

Talks about reducing friction by decreasing the number of steps between you and your good habit. Inversely, increasing the friction in the number of steps between you and your bad habit.

And The 4th Law: Make it Satisfying.

Talks about using reinforcement of good behavior by rewarding yourself for completed habits. Inversely, avoiding your bad habits by making the cost of them public and painful.

Here is the Habit Charts Summary as provided in the book.

Clear introduces a four-step model for human behavior: cue, craving, response, and reward, that teaches how to create new habits but also reveals some interesting insights about human behavior. At the end of the novel Clear describes 18 different lessons of human behavior that are observable through implementation of the four step model including: “It is the idea of pleasure that we chase,” and “Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems.” Some of my other favorite proverbs are outlined on my instagram!

Atomic Habits by James Clear is a must read if you are seeking grounded and realistic ways to change your life and achieve your goals. This book achieves what many self-help books lack and that is step by step direction. The market tends to be saturated with “believe in yourself” narrative, which is all good, but forgets to detail the framework for putting that belief into action. Action that procures results both seen and felt. The easy to follow tools offered in this book can be useful at every stage in life and I can’t wait to implement them on my own!