Atomic Habits- a book review

 

Atomic Habits by James Clear is a good resource if you are at a point where you want to change some bad habits for good habits.  I'm in the process of doing so myself and this book has been a tremendous encouragement to me in my journey.

The point of the entire book is that all we need to do is 1% better each time than the time before and the accumulation of all those one percents will get us changed habits.

This is accomplished by four laws...

1.) Make it Obvious;

 

2.) Make it Attractive;

3.) Make it  Easy; 

4,) Make it Satisfying

 

I've always been a goal setter...but not necessarily a goal achiever.  It didn't take much reading in this book to determine why that has been the case.  I've not been willing to start out slow and build on each layer of the new habit that I've tried to create in order to achieve my goal.  Mr. Clear, more than once in the book, reminds the reader that it isn't the goals that we have wrong...it's the systems we have for reaching them.

Allow me to share a few quotes from the book.

" 1. Decide the type of person you want to be.

   2. Prove it to yourself with small wins." (page 39)

And in response to the fact that we all want to "fit in" because it's part of our nature, the author says this...  "When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive.  When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive."   He continues, "Once we fit in, we start looking for ways to stand out."  Both of these quotes (found on page 121) are so true of our human nature, but the last one makes me chuckle because it's so true.  We want to do what everyone else is doing so we fit in but then we just want to be different enough from the crowd to stand out.

In reference to "having to do something" and "getting to do something" and how it affects our outlook on life..."You get to wake up early for work.  You get to make another sales call for your business.  You get to cook dinner for your family.  By simply changing one word, you shift the way you view each event.  You transition from seeing these bahaviors as burdens and turn then into opportunities." (page 131)

"Change is easy when it's enjoyable" (page 193)  Mr. Clear gives an example of how giving people in a town that was over crowded and the majority of people were living in unsanitary conditions in Pakistan a bar of soap that smelled good and lathered nicely instructing them in how to use it brought down the rate of diarrhea by 52 percent, pneumonia by 48 percent, and impetigo, a bacterial skin infection, by 35 percent.  It was just a small change of habit, but it brought about great results.

"Gradually, though, as you continue to layer small changes on top of one another, the scales of life start to move.  Each improvement is like adding a grain of sand to the positive side of the scale, slowly tilting things in your favor.  Eventually, if you stick with it, you hit a tipping point.  Suddenly, it feels easier to stick with good habits.  The weight of the system is working for you rather than against you." (page 252)

Mr. Clear speaks of how often times when we start out to change our habits and are becoming accomplished with it, we don't pay as much attention to how we are doing something and are okay with not doing our very best to improve.  He reminds the readers that this is a downfall and shares the secret on (page 253),  "The secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements.  It's remarkable what you can build if you just don't stop."

I highly recommend this book if you desire to turn bad habits into good ones.  You will need to read the whole book (264 pages) in order to glean the information, but it's definitely worth it in my opinon.