For the last two decades self-help — or maybe they’re new ways of thinking — books have dominated best seller lists, with the most popular all seeming to find a Gladwellian way to simplify the complex (i.e., 10,000 hours and you can be Wayne Gretzky). That is, take an interesting topic buttressed by a research paper published in a respected journal and turn it into a straightforward system or framework that any nine-year-old could comprehend. And with few everyday folks excited to read medical journals (sorry New England Journal of Medicine) these texts are a great way to get really interesting information (i.e., Emotional Intelligence or Thinking, Fast and Slow) out to the world.
Atomic Habits follows similar framework (with an abundance of synthesis) and it does so wonderfully. James Clear’s writing is, well, clear. Chapters are to the point, include potent, real-life examples, and offer helpful graphs and recaps. To me, it felt like an updated The 4-Hour Work Week; not at all due to topic, but by the way it makes major life changes seem so accessible. I read it twice and both times it felt like a close friend, who does a lot of internet research late at night, was walking me through the optimal strategy to supercharge my life. It’s the book I’d want to read before I attempted any major mental renovation.
Like Charles Duhigg did in The Power of Habit, Clear breaks habits into cues, cravings, responses, and rewards. So whereas creating a good habit requires making it obvious (cue), attractive (craving), easy (response), and satisfying (reward), dropping a bad habit requires making it invisible (cue), unattractive (craving), difficult (response), and unsatisfying (reward). So, for example, lets say you want to read more books (a great habit), you might consider keeping books wherever you spend extended time, especially where you get bored (obvious/cue). But, you’ll only buy books on subjects you’re really interested in (attractive/craving). Initially, you’ll start reading only two pages at a time (easy/response), and afterward you can watch a comedy clip on YouTube (satisfying/reward).
Overall, it’s a great motivator and I’d recommend it to anyone who keeps getting stuck in the same habits and hopes to live a better life.
Favorite Quotes / Takeaways: “Habits are simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment “ (Clear quoting Jason Hreha) pg 45
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” (Clear quoting Carl Jung) pg 62
“During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [Day] at [Time] in [Place].” (Participants who did this [implementation intention] before the study worked out 91% of the time compared to 35% for those who didn’t) pg 69
“The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.” pg 73
Speaking on Vietnam Vets stopping drug use upon returning to the U.S. “Instead Robbins revealed that addiction could spontaneously dissolve if there was a radical change in the environment.” pg 92
“One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.” pg 94
“Behaviors are attractive when they help us fit in. We imitate the habits of three groups in particular. 1: the close. 2: the many. 3: the powerful” pg 116
“Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems your face; they are just the methods you learned to use.” pg 128
“Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the non-conscious mind takes over.” (In making a habit stick, it’s about volume/reps not time) pg 145
Cardinal Rule of Behavoir Change “What is rewarded is repeated. What is punished is avoided.” pg 186
“The French economist Frederic Bastiat explained the problem (i.e., the cost of your good habits are in the present. The cost of your bad habits are in the future) clearly when he wrote, ‘ It almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice verse… Often, the sweeter the fruit of habits, the more bitter are its later fruits.'” pg 189
“Boiling water will soften a potato but harden an egg. You can’t control whether you’re a potato or an egg, but you can decide to play a game where it’s better to be hard or soft.” pg 226
“Until you work as hard as those you admire, don’t explain away their success as luck.” pg227
“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. just right.” pg 231
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”
“Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals”
“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”
About the Author: James Clear played baseball at Denison University and earned an MBA from the Ohio State University. He has a popular 3-2-1 weekly newsletter and a Habit Journal, which was released after the success of Atomic Habits.
Daniel Dickey