Book summary of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to be. But no single action will change your beliefs overnight.
That’s because your beliefs emerge from your habits. And to change your habits for good, you have to change your identity first.
The Science of Habits
Good habits are a powerful way to make changes in our lives, but they can also be hard to maintain. Luckily, there are research-based steps you can take to change bad habits and develop good ones, says social psychologist Wendy Wood.
Scientists have long known about the power of habit and have formulated a number of ways to build strong, lasting routines. These strategies are now used in business, education, and even public health.
The first step in building a habit is to identify a cue or trigger that will activate your brain’s reward center. This may be something simple and obvious, like a cup of coffee in the morning. Then, find a way to get your brain to crave that cue.
Researchers have found that the best way to build a habit is to perform the behavior frequently in the same context. This will create an association in your brain that will guide your future behavior.
For example, when a rat is repeatedly separated from a chocolate-filled maze, it will go up and down, sniff, and scratch its way to the treats. Eventually, these behaviors will be stored in the basal ganglia of the brain and will be performed automatically when the situation arises.
Those same habits can be difficult to break, however. The brain is an enormous supercomputer that constantly analyzes, adapts and reacts to our environment. As a result, our brains can get a little overwhelmed and look for ways to ease the load, like habits.
But that doesn’t mean you need to give up on forming new habits. Rather, you need to learn how they work and apply that knowledge to your own life.
According to behavioral scientist Benjamin Gardner, the average time it takes to form a new habit is two weeks. That’s because you need to develop a habit loop — a three-part process that includes a cue, a reward, and a feeling of satisfaction.
The cues and rewards that form a habit aren’t always easy to spot, but they can be found in the very places you’d expect them to be: at home, at work, in school, at the gym. So, to change your habits, you need to look for them and make a plan to replace them with healthier choices.
The Four Laws of Habit Change
Habits are built on a four-step feedback loop that involves cue, craving, response, and reward. The cue is a piece of information that triggers a behavior; the craving is a desire to get that information; the response is whatever you need to do to get the information; and the reward is the satisfaction you feel from obtaining the information.
Every habit is designed to solve a problem you have in your life. Sometimes this problem is a desire to obtain something, like a piece of information; sometimes it’s a pain that needs to be relieved, like an injury or illness.
The most effective way to build habits is through repetition. When you repeat a small act a few times, it automatically becomes a habit that leads to incredible results.
James Clear has identified what he calls “atomic habits.” These are the little changes you make that can add up to extraordinary results. They’re the foundation of a system for compound growth.
When you do a small act, such as run a mile each day or write in your journal, it starts to become automatic, a habit. And once it’s automated, it becomes part of your system for compound growth.
Eventually, your routine gets so automatic that you don’t even have to think about it. It’s a sort of super-power that allows you to accomplish things that would be impossible without it.
To develop a new habit, you have to create a cue that is obvious and attractive; make the craving for the behavior attractive; make the behavior easy to perform; and provide a reward for doing it. It also helps to have an accountability partner or a habit tracker to help you stay consistent.
In contrast, you’ll find it much harder to break a habit that is invisible or unattractive, makes the behavior difficult to perform, and doesn’t give you any immediate rewards. This is because our brains prefer to satisfy immediate desires over long-term ones.
The Four Laws of Habit Change are based on these same principles, and are integral to the design of good habits and to the elimination of bad ones. They’re an essential component of the habit-building process and they’re the most important rules for changing your behaviors.
Small Changes Lead to Big Changes
In the book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, he makes the point that small changes lead to big changes. In fact, he explains that getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long run.
For example, if you make it a goal to be 1% better at running a marathon each day for a year, you will become 37 times better than you were at the start of the year. Similarly, improving your sleeping habits each day will get you to the next level of sleep, which is a significant improvement in your overall life.
These small changes can be the difference between reaching your goals or falling short of them, according to Clear’s research. That’s because he believes that small changes lead to big results when approached systematically.
To illustrate his idea of small changes leading to big results, he tells the story of an ice cube. If you add just a single ice cube to the water, it will become a larger ice cube. However, if you add multiple ice cubes to the water, it will become a smaller ice cube.
It’s not uncommon to hear motivational speakers talk about small, incremental changes as the key to achieving great results. But it’s actually important to understand that these little adjustments work together as a system to generate extraordinary outcomes, and that you need to create a strategy for implementing them.
The key to achieving long-term success is to focus on your system, not your goals. That’s because if you’re setting a goal without a system for implementing it, you won’t reach it.
Identity-Based Habits
James Clear, author of the New York Times best selling book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, believes that your habits can shape your identity. For example, if you want to be a writer, then every time you write something, you are embodying that identity.
This concept is important to understand, because it allows you to see how your habits are connected to your identity. By taking the time to identify your ideal identity, you can then create good habits that will support your goal.
If you want to be a reader, for example, it’s a good idea to focus on developing identity-based habits that will help you become the kind of person who reads regularly. This can include things like getting books to read in the morning, reading a few chapters a day before going to bed, and avoiding social media when you’re trying to get some sleep.
These are simple changes that can make a huge difference in your life. They’re also much easier to implement than changing your diet or exercising more often.
Another key component to building good habits is ensuring that they’re well supported by your environment. For example, if you’re trying to be a better reader, surround yourself with people who already have that habit.
You don’t want to be around people who are sabotaging your goals, so avoid friends or coworkers that are not supportive of your healthy habits. It’s also a good idea to find groups where your desired identity is the default identity.
Once you have established your new identity, then it’s easy to develop habits that will support this. For instance, if you’re trying to be more healthy, then start by making sure that you’re eating healthy foods.
You can also work on changing your identity by focusing on your core values and beliefs. For example, if you’re a person who loves helping others, then it’s important to make sure that you spend your time volunteering or donating to causes that benefit others.
