Atomic Habits by James Clear
Sixteen Sentence Summary
This book beyond its abundance of methods towards positive habit making offers perspective.
“Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results”.
It speaks about how making incremental progress with your day to day habits no matter how small it may be, will benefit you in the long run.
Only if they are working towards your identify and the type of person you want to be.
Firstly you need to identify all your habits and mark them as good, bad or neutral.
This in itself opens your eyes and makes you self aware of everything you do daily.
James then breaks down behaviour change into four laws; Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy and Make it satisfying.
These four form a habit loop so if you can meet the criteria for each law, you’ll be building solid habits.
Now it’s important to note, that the inverse of these laws are the criteria for breaking bad habits; Make it invisible, Make it unattractive, Make it hard, Make it unsatisfying.
James offers unique perspectives from his own point of view as well as real life stories of successful people who have used similar methods in their day to day lives.
Habits can become autonomous, so this means you have more time to spend doing more difficult things throughout your day while you subconsciously do things you’ve made habitual.
Although he goes into depth throughout the four laws offering tons of methods such as habit stacking and motivational messages such as;
“Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine”.
and
“If you can get 1 percent better each day for a year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done”
You are ultimately responsible for identifying your habits and choosing what methods work for you, so you can develop the positive habits you want.
You will only change, if you put in the effort.
Reflection
I freaking loved this book. And its already paying dividends. Half way through I was already making progress because I was hungry to prove to myself that habits work.
I’m starting to realise where to best fit my day to day activities so that I actually do them. I’ve always been pretty reliable but I feel even more driven to achieve. It isn’t just the book but it’s definitely offered more perspective.
I’ve realised that I need to make changes that ultimately score a point for the person I want to be.
Which reminds me; Matthew McConaughey said a really inspiring speech after he won an Oscar for best actor in Dallas Buyers Club.
He spoke about how his Hero is himself in 10 years. And he’ll never attain that, which is okay because it gives him someone to keep on chasing.
I think striving and working towards getting better and being the best version of yourself is what life is about. And positive day to day habits pushes that train along.
If you’re not doing things that match your values and your identity, you’re hindering your own progress.
Let me know if you a have any questions or just want to talk about the book!
