Atomic Habits Part 1
Forget about goals; focus on systems instead
There is a reason that James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones is a New York Times bestseller and read by so many leaders. I have heard this book recommended or cited many times since it was published in 2018. It was on my reading list at the beginning of 2020 and I just happened to get around to it about two weeks into the COVID shutdowns in late March of that year. I would listen to it via Audible while I was building a new habit: morning walks before I started my work-at-home-forever days.
We can divide the book into six sections, as James Clear does. Each newsletter for the next 6 weeks will cover these sections of the book in this timeline:
September 16: The Fundamentals (Chapters 1-3)
September 23: The 1st Law: Make it Obvious (Chapters 4-7)
September 30: The 2nd Law: Make it Attractive (Chapters 8-10)
October 7: The 3rd Law: Make it Easy (Chapters 11-14)
October 14: The 4th Law: Make it Satisfying (Chapters 15-17)
October 15: 10:30 AM ET: LIVE BOOK CLUB SESSION LED BY Francisco Gonzalez (hey, that’s me!)
October 21: Advanced Tactics (Chapters 18-20)
Over the next 6 weeks, we will take on each of these sections one week at a time. This should be very easy to do since these chapters are very short. However, I want you to do this slow and methodically so you can really grasp the tiny, daily changes you can make to build new habits and perhaps remove bad ones.
You’ll notice our live book club session will take place on October 15 - before we’re done with the final part of the book. That is so that you can then process what we will talk about in that live session before you read the Advanced Tactics at the end of the book. Of course, you are welcome to read at a faster pace if you must, but each week’s newsletter will focus on these sections one at a time.
So let’s get into the first section.
Be sure to read the introduction to the book. I think it’s important context to understand James Clear’s personal story and why habit formation was so important to him. In fact, if you remember last month’s book, Start With Why by Simon Sinek, you can see Clear starting with his why here and why he is passionate about helping each of us.
Clear tells us at the start that “success is the product of daily habits not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.” In this book, he gets us to focus on making small changes by building tiny habits, which “compound for years and equal long-term results.” The slow pace of transformation isn’t noticeable day to day but is over the long term. To make this point hit home he says, “To write a great book, become the book.”
Here are some early key takeaways:
Good habits make time your ally; bad habits make time your enemy.
Change can take years before it all happens at once.
Forget about goals; focus on systems instead. Do you remember Simon Sinek telling us that while he had the energy to start a business and move his company forward, he failed at having systems? This is key.
You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.
Goals give us a direction to move towards, but systems help us make progress each day. If we focus on getting just 1% better every day, over the course of a year we’ll actually get 37% better over that time.
I ask you to pause here and think about a habit you have today. Any habit. Could be good. Could be bad. Could be neutral. How did it start? How has it continued?
Goals are great, but once you achieve something — say finishing a half-marathon — what is your next step? Do you still identify as a runner? Or was it a one-time thing to train for and now your running has stopped? What other examples might be like this in your life that once you reached a milestone - and perhaps succeeded - you gave up on that identity or activity?
***
In Chapter 2, James Clear says we tend to try to change our OUTCOMES but we really should be working to change our PROCESS.
In this sense, we should be thinking about BUILDING OUR IDENTITY: WHO we wish to become. He gives us some examples. One is of two different people who are offered a cigarette. One says: “No thanks” and the other says “No thanks, I am not a smoker.” That was a subtle difference, but one has confirmed what IDENTITY they are / are not.
Clear tells us there are 3 levels of change:
Outcome
Process
Identity
(By the way, for those of you who read Start With Why, does this look familiar?)
Our Identity is:
Who we wish to become
A set of beliefs
Difference between a person who WANTS THIS vs. a person who IS THIS
When a habit becomes part of who you are, you will continue it
So let’s pause here and think about a reflection. What is one part of your IDENTITY today? What do you do that currently maintains that identity?
For me, maybe I might say that I can identify as a:
Tennis player
Traveler
Writer
Fundraiser
Podcaster
Teacher
I’m not limited to these identities and I don’t always have to be identified with these things well into the future, but for now, these are part of my identity. If I want to add (or remove) something to (or from) my identity, I will need to follow a process.
And James Clear gives us a TWO-STEP process to change our identity:
Repeated Actions
You change bit-by-bit, day-by-day, habit-by-habit
Radical change isn’t required
Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become
You won’t always “vote” the same / right way every time, but if you do it the majority of the time, you will win.
Decide the person you want to become (WHO)
Your habits shape your identity, your identity shapes your habits
This creates a feedback loop in both directions of this concept, reinforcing both your identity and the habits associated with it
***
In Chapter 3, Clear reminds us that a habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.
When we form habits, it is a process that begins with trial and error.
This is the feedback loop behind all human behavior:
Try
Fail
Learn
Try Differently
Habits are reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment. They are mental shortcuts drawn on by experience.
For now, pause and reflect for a few moments: What is an action you have tried at, failed at, learned from, and tried differently? Or, thinking differently, what is a routine you have that is repeated so automatically each day that you don’t even think about it. You and your mind have created a mental shortcut to make these behaviors more efficient.
***
Clear has identified FOUR STEPS to habit formation:
CUE – triggers brain to initiate a behavior [predicts reward]
CRAVING – the motivational force behind every habit
RESPONSE – the actual habit you perform [thought or action]
REWARD – the end goal of every habit
Everything in this process is not about the habit. It’s about the REWARD!
CUE – notices the reward
CRAVING – wanting the reward
RESPONSE – obtaining the reward
REWARD – satisfies and teaches us which actions are worth remembering
This is a neurological feedback loop – which is what James Clear calls “The Habit Loop.”
Clear then gives us 4 Laws of Behavior Change (and their opposites):
Make it Obvious (Invisible)
Make it Attractive (Unattractive)
Make it Easy (Difficult)
Make it Satisfying (Unsatisfying)
If you’re trying to form a new habit, you want to make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. If you are trying to change / avoid a bad behavior you do the inverse — which I put in parenthesis above. You make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying.
This is the foundation on everything we are going to go over during the upcoming five weeks. For now, keep reading and get through chapters 4 through 7 for next week. That will cover the FIRST LAW: MAKE IT OBVIOUS.
You can also go to JamesClear.com/media and find some of the worksheets he references in the Audible version. These worksheets are likely available in the print edition. Keep reading. Soon you will be making 1% progress every day on your new habits.