Have you ever had the irresistible urge to do a complete life upgrade? Maybe you feel that you could spend your days being much more productive, organized, and healthy. This happens for many of us when New Year’s or another birthday rolls around.
As good as our intentions may be, figuring out how to implement beneficial habits into our lives can be tricky. Sticking to our plans proves to be more difficult than simply wanting better for ourselves.
James Clear and his #1 best-selling book (on Amazon, the New York Times Bestsellers list, and audible) has brought us “Atomic Habits, an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.” This book goes deep into detail about how and why we succeed (or don’t) in our pursuit of self-improvement.
Today we’ll go over some of the key takeaways from the book so you can become the person you want to be instead of wishfully thinking about it. Read on to learn about how Atomic Habits can change your life for the better.
Habit Loop-
Our brains work really hard every day. There’s so much information coming in daily and our brain tries to recognize and automate the patterns it notices. As with Maslow’s dogs, they learned to associate the ringing of the bell with the appearance of food. Your brain will also associate certain actions with certain results when they’re repeated.
The habit loop consists of a cue-craving-response-and reward. If you’re a smoker, the cue might be when you pour yourself a cup of coffee. You head to your back porch, sip your coffee, and light up a cigarette. The cue is the pouring of coffee, the craving for a cigarette will kick in. The response is lighting up and smoking, the reward is the dopamine rush you’ll get to your brain.
Although smoking isn’t a healthy habit, your brain still receives the cue, gets a craving, and is responded to and rewarded. When this pattern is repeated enough times and becomes a habit it can become extremely difficult to break that pattern. You’d need to switch out the cigarette and replace it with another habit like let’s say… meditating. Of course, addictions are a little more complex than that but there lies the basic idea.
Goals vs Systems-
You might have big goals but don’t know how to execute your days to make them into a reality. A standout quote from the book reads “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” Read that one again. You can be the world’s biggest dreamer but without the proper steps to take yourself there, it doesn’t mean much.
Take a hard look at your current daily life. Write out how you spend your time for an entire week. Don’t leave things out either. Sift, sort, and reflect on if these daily tasks can get you to the place you want to be. If not, how can you maneuver things to align more with your goals?
If you dream of becoming a concert pianist, but only spend 30 minutes a week practicing, is that goal realistic? By practicing for 30 minutes a day, your goal will become much more of a possibility.
The Power Of Identity-
If there’s a certain type of lifestyle you admire and aspire to become yet your lifestyle doesn’t align with that, not only do you have to change your habits and patterns but also how you identify with yourself.
Someone might get up every day at 5 am to do 3 hours of deep work before the day starts. Granted that they’re job, amount or age of children, etc. makes this more feasible, (again these are strictly examples).
If you wish to become someone who’s up every day at 5 am doing deep work then you need some brain rewiring. Believe that not only do you want to do that but you are someone who does that. This means going to bed earlier, turning off Netflix, and setting up a good bedtime routine. Set your alarm and wake up when it goes off instead of hitting snooze.
Reframe your mind, instead of saying “I wish that I could get up at 5 am to do 3 hours of deep work” to, “I am someone who gets up every day at 5 am to do 3 hours of deep work.” When you actually believe what you’re saying, intrinsically you’re more likely to stick with it. It’s not that you wish to do that but you are someone who does do that.
1% Better-
You’ve probably heard about the term compound interest. Like a snowball the more you get the ball rolling the bigger and bigger it gets. Like investing money, exercising, or working on your business. While it may start small and seem like it’s plateauing, the longer you keep it up, eventually it only gets bigger and better.
We get discouraged from keeping up with good habits since results don’t come immediately and we love instant gratification. If you can, instead of focusing on your larger vision, focus on improving 1% each day. Eventually, the compound interest of your good habits will take over.
How many times have you heard of someone becoming an “overnight success”? Usually, this person will say that while it appears they’ve become an overnight success, there were years and years of work behind the scenes before anyone noticed. Many famous singers and comedians have played in small venues while they perfected their craft. The more they practiced, the bigger the crowds got until one day they blew up and became a household name.
Time and the effects of compound interest take effect if you’re willing to show up for yourself consistently. Be okay with not seeing the results immediately but know that with consistent effort it’ll all be worth it. Atomic Habits states that if you get 1% better every day, by the end of the year you’ll be 37% better!
You Are Who You Surround Yourself With-
Make whatever atomic habits you want to include in your life more attainable by surrounding yourself with people where said habit is the norm. If you want to wake up and go for a run, join a running club.
If all of your friends regularly go out drinking from Thursday to Sunday, guess what, you’re probably going to do the same. This isn’t saying to throw your whole friend group away but attempt to expand your circle with people you want to be more like.
We often surround ourselves with people who are similar to us and partake in their same style of activities. Give yourself an edge by gaining proximity to people you wish to be more like.
2-Minute Rule-
Many of us are all-or-nothing people. If you don’t have time to do the whole workout then there’s no point in doing it at all, right? This mindset holds us back in so many ways. The goal isn’t to get 10% better every day, the goal is to get 1% better every day.
A quick 2-minute workout, doing a few jumping jacks, high knees, and pushups before you head out in the morning is much better than nothing. It’ll keep you in your routines and help you keep your promises to yourself. When you keep your promises to yourself you begin to trust yourself more. When you trust yourself and believe the things you tell yourself you’ll be much more likely to follow through.
Atomic habits suggests when starting a new habit, you only do it for 2 minutes. Read for 2 minutes, write for 2 minutes, work out for 2 minutes, or meditate for 2 minutes. Starting a new habit can be daunting at first and this makes it more welcoming. You’ll also get annoyed that once you get slightly into the flow of your new habit, you’ll have to stop.
Make It Obvious-
Out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, this simple statement is responsible for a lot of missed opportunities. Make your brain think about the things you need to be doing. Put away the things you don’t want your brain to think about.
If you want to read more books put them beside your bedside table. This way you’ll see it right when you wake up and before you sleep. Putting it in your line of vision will cue your brain to say “I should read a chapter before bed or before I get out of bed.”
Do this technique for the atomic habits you don’t want to partake in. If you binge-watch too much TV, hide your remote in an inconvenient location and note where it is in your phone. When you come home after a long day, your first instinct won’t be to turn on the TV since the remote isn’t in your view.
Make It Attractive-
This rule is linked to temptation bundling, linking something you need to do with something you want to do. For example, if you want to watch the latest Netflix episode you’ve been waiting for, tell yourself “after I write this blog post I can watch the episode.” Or “after I complete a 30-minute workout, I can check my social media accounts”. This allows your brain to look at the activity you want to do as a reward more than a given.
Make It Easy-
Make the atomic habits you want to be a part of your routine easier to access. If you want to workout in the morning, set out your clothes within eye view before you go to sleep. If you want to finish writing your book draft, set out your laptop beside your coffee machine.
The same goes for habits you want to get rid of. Hide your remote control, set locks on social media apps, and hide your credit card when you’ve been splurging too much. If you want to eat more vegetables, pre-wash them and cut them up after purchasing so they’re ready to go. Hide your junk food in the highest cupboard where they’re out of reach. Make the things you want to do easier and the things you don’t want to do harder.
Make It Satisfying-
Your good habits can take a while to see the fruits of your labour. To stay motivated, give yourself a metaphorical gold star whenever you complete your good habit. Make a habit tracker and check off a box every day that you complete your said habit. Your brain will look at all of those checked-off boxes and have a hard time “breaking the chain”.
Life happens, if you miss a day, get back on track as soon as possible and never miss twice. Give yourself an accountability partner or make yourself an accountability contract that says you’ll donate X amount of dollars to charity every time you fall off the wagon or whatever else you feel would work. Make the completion of your atomic habits as satisfying as possible and missing the habit as unsatisfying as possible.
Conclusion-
We all have goals and dreams that we wish were a reality. Unfortunately, these goals aren’t all it takes to get where we want to be, otherwise everyone would do it. To become the version of yourself you aspire to be, it takes some prep work and effort to get there.
Setting yourself up for success will make it much easier to get ahead. Track your current habits and assess whether they’re good +, bad – or neutral = to see where to readjust your behaviours. Make the habits you want to include in your daily life obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. Make the habits you want to avoid unobvious, unattractive, uneasy, and unsatisfying.
Instead of looking at a long and winding road ahead, attempt to get 1% better every day. Doing a little something is better than doing nothing. Identify who you want to become and mold yourself and your mindset to fit that person instead of not identifying with that lifestyle.
Be careful of who you surround yourself with regularly as they can either help or hurt your overall vision. Test out these atomic habits and watch your goals and wildest dreams unfold before your eyes. Comment below which methods you’re most looking forward to trying and which have worked the best for you.
