Atomic Habits by James Clear a Book Review
We all have goals and target success to chase. The thing is we thought that to make a massive success we need a massive effort but it's not. Atomic Habits proved that by compounding improvements over time or being 1% better everyday will bring us success we wanted.
But be careful because habit is a double edge sword, it can either build you up or cut you down.
Most of us troubling to change and it's not because we didn't want to but it's the system, we didn't know what and where to change.
First is to set a goal, and break it down with what process, action, and habits you should take in order to reach your goal. Once you know your goal then commit yourself with the process, focus on the system.
Do not rise to the level of your goal, fall in the level of your system. Learn to fall in love with the system so you won't restrict yourself to be happy, you'll be satisfied everyday.
Habits and Personality have a big impact and relationship with each other. Everything you do is a projection of who you are, and who you are is what you do. Align with your habits with your personality. Everything you do is a vote to the person you wanted to be.
An action, habit or a behavior is a infinite loop of cues, craving, response, and reward and that is where we are going to adjust our desired habits by using the 4 Rules of Behavioral Change.
First is to Make it Obvious, which is linked with the cues of our habits. It's our relationship with the things we see and gets our attention.
To make cues Obvious is to list and evaluate your current habits wether it is casting a vote to the person you wanted to be or not. By doing this we will be aware of our habits where to adjust. There is really no such thing as bad or good habit. It's either effective or ineffective habit. Here's a situation, for people building up his or her body it is effective to eat more while the same habit isn't effective to those whose trying to loose weight.
Next is to apply Implementation Intension, it is to schedule our habits when and where. It is very effective because most of the time we say to ourself "I'm going to read, I'm going to jog" and ended up not doing anything at all.
We can also use Habit stacking where we link our desired habit to our current habit. For me, it is when I'll go for a run after cleaning up my bed which is my current habit.
Lastly is to design your environment that will prioritize the cues of your new habit according to its purpose and your relationship to it.
Second is to make it Attractive that is linked to our cravings which drives us to do make our response. It focuses on the anticipation of the reward not obtaining of it. It's the excitement of imagining your dream road trip and not the road trip itself. It's the anticipation of waiting for Christmas, not the celebration itself.
To make craving more attractive is to apply Temptation Bundling, where you link the habit you needed to do to the habit you wanted to do.
You should also join a culture where your desired habit is normal. Because we are social animals. We want to feel belonged, accepted. Being accepted to a culture is attractive, to get along with the culture is attractive, and to be admire and stand out with your culture will make your habit more attractive. You'll crave for more.
Third is to Make it Easy. We always tend to do more or to do first what is easy. So what we need to to is to respond with our cues and cravings at ease.
To make our response easy is to remove friction on our action, it's more of external factor. Design your environment where you can execute your habit easier. Same with priming your environment, not only organizing the cues and wastes after use but also preparing for the future use.
You should also master Decisive Moments where your future actions were constrained by your first action or decision. It's when you decide to choose your phone, so you're now constrained on scrolling on Facebook or on any social media accounts.
There is also the thing what you call The 2minutes Rule. My favorite one lol hahahaha. Where your new habit should be be easy and should only last for 2 minutes. The 2 minutes rule of picking up a book and read one sentence or putting in your running shoes will be the gateway to your productivity path of reading 20 pages of book a day or run for 1 kilometer.
There is a tendency most of the time where we were at the point of "all-in or nothing" . Where if we cannot do something perfectly we prefer not doing an action at all. The 2 minutes rule will be a great help. You might not do great today, but you cast a vote to someone you wanted to be in the future, and that's what matters. You have to standardize your habit before you optimize it.
Lastly is you can invest in Automation, on technology. On Commitment Devices, on a one-time actions. It is when we make our bad habits difficult to make our good habits easier in the future. I actually apply one-time action" myself, i decided to uninstall gaming applications on my phone in order for me to focus on reading and searching online and it really helps a lot.
Finally, The Forth Law of Behavioral Change is to make it Satisfying. Making a habit satisfying will make ourselves repeat the same actions over again and that how our habit should work. We should be able to satisfy ourselves to the rewards we get.
But the situation is the rewards of good habits are delayed.
To make a habit satisfying is to give ourselves an immediate reward while we are pursuing for the delayed rewards of our main goal. If can be, after I run for 2 kilometers, I will treat myself a chocolate snack. It's giving myself an immediate reward while pursuing my main goal of good body posture.
Next is by habit tracking, not only it can make you aware of your progress but also makes your habit obvious and attractive about your habit that you have already done and what you have not. More importantly it gives you a visual evidence, a satisfaction that you finish your action and you've made a job well done.
Lastly is do not miss your habit Twice! (miss q na twice lalo na si ballerina mina) Even you're consistent enough getting out of track is inevitable. Missing a habit once is an accident, missing twice is forming a new habit. It's the winner who can bounce back immediately.
Well, as to bad habits, you can reverse it by making the bad once Invisible, Unattractive, Difficult and Unsatisfying.
Atomic Habits also emphasize that genes do not determine your destiny, it determine the area of opportunities. Make use out of it.
Sustaining habits, in a long run might be difficult. That's why reflections and review of your habit is important in order for you to get aware of your mistakes and room for improvements.
It is when Goldilocks Rule was introduced, you need to challenge yourself in a manageable difficulty so you can continue to grow with excitement. Boredom is the real enemy of success. Continue to challenge your self.
Atomic habits thought me that success is a gradual evolution of small wins and tiny breakthroughs. There is no such thing as a overnight success. I might not be successful enough today but I'll be 1% better everyday. Thank you for reading up to this point!
Wish you all the best;
From your warmest super hero,
Franz
Comments
Post a Comment