My biggest takeaways from Atomic Habits Part I.
As alluded in my previous blog post, I aimed to write a post on the now well-known book called “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Yes - the featured image on this blog post is literally a screenshot that I took on my phone when I was listening to the audiobook. To say this book’s popularity has increased over the past few years would be an understatement. For the record, I think this book is absolutely phenomenal and a must read if you want to not only build habits but to also live a more structured and intentional life. I encourage anyone of any age to read this book - so much so that I will be splitting this into two blog posts. My first reason is that cramming all I’ve learnt from this book into one blog post would be quite a long read. Secondly, keeping it to one digestible blog post would be an injustice to the quality of this book.
Note: these posts are not intended to be a summary of the book - summaries of the book can be found elsewhere and simply regurgitating its contents would be pointless. Instead, I want to emphasize points from the book that I not only believe in but also have tried implementing them in real-life. So, if you are thinking of developing newer and better habits, I hope that these two blog posts can give a more practical application to your life.
Change Your identity
In one of the earlier chapters, Clear talks about the three layers of change, each with increasing depth of one’s being: outcomes -> process -> identity. He then goes on to say that we often focus on changing the outcomes of our lives, but we do not question if our identity aligns with those outcomes. It makes sense - why would someone willingly do something (or even anything) if it doesn’t align with their core values? It is generally a lot easier to do and commit to something when your identity and beliefs align with that commitment. Thus, it starts with making a change to your very being, your identity, before you can think about changing your outcomes. How do you do this? It’s a simple two-step process really:
Decide the kind of person you want to be
Prove it through habits, actions, and your commitments
Masking the “old” you whilst trying to change isn’t sustainable long-term.
“That sounds too good to be true, Brandon. Give us an example”. Alright, sure. Let’s go back to 15 year old me. I was a “skinny fat” teenager who just left high school and looked like one too as I mentioned in my blog post about benefits of fitness no one talks about. A prominent side effect of this was that I was unconfident and developed a stutter. I hated public speaking and I was teased and bullied for it. Then one day, my mother talked about a public speaking activity called Model United Nations (MUN). You can read about it on your own, but just know that it requires you to speak in front of tens and maybe even a hundred people and you must know (or, at least pretend to know) your stuff. After attending almost every conference I could go to, I embodied the identity of a “MUN-ner” i.e., a Model UN addict. Just as I turned 16, I realized that my stutter began to improve. Sure, my classmates would still tease me for the fact that my stutter would still rear its ugly head and by now, they teased me for loving MUN so much. However at that point, I didn’t care. I was so proud of how far I had come. Even though the remnants of that fear of speaking in front of others still haunts me, I can say that I face that fear and speak if I must.
If you had to take away one thing from this section, it’s this: next time you want to change your life outcomes, ask yourself the question: “what would [insert person with desired identity] do?”
Minimize distractions
Look, I get it - we live in a world with distractions galore. The temptation of our warm cozy bed, a pizza just a few taps away and let’s not even begin to discuss social media. However, I want to quote directly from the audiobook:
“Be the designer of your world, not just its consumer”
Overall, I think Clear is saying that we need to have control over life, not let life simply control us. We must prevent potential distractions from, well, distracting us and a very effective method is to set up your environment with cues for good habits, and prevent cues for bad habits.
We are consumed by the things around us, especially the ones in our pockets or purses.
I’ll highlight one way from the book on how you can do this. A straightforward way is to fill in the following sentence:
“I will [action] at [time] in [location]”
The good thing about this is that you can apply this to literally anything you are trying to do. A bonus tip is to write it down somewhere such as a journal or a sticky note. Just saying it to yourself may not be enough. For example, coming out of my first finance year-end threw my schedule off and I couldn’t stick to my usual morning workout. Previously, I would just think “workout tomorrow morning” but that obviously wasn’t working. Implementing this tactic, I would write in a journal that for the next day, “Workout at 7:30am” (I didn’t include the location because I already knew my workout would be at the gym). By specifying the time and writing it down, I almost immediately saw improvement. Sure - it wasn’t an overnight success (and nothing ever is with any good habit), but the improvement was gradual and consistent. Within just a couple weeks, I was in the gym at 7:30am. Setting a time and location for something you want to do helps you allocate a part of your day to that activity. Not meeting it makes you feel as if you’ve not stayed true to yourself (more on that later). Try it out - grab an old diary/journal that still has pages left or just use some scratch paper and writing down things you need to do using the template above.
Take the First Step And Repeat
So, you’ve changed your identity and got rid of the distractions; time to take the first step. In the book, Clear talks about “the 2-minute rule”. He states that a new habit should only take two minutes to do and that is the “gateway” to a new habit. Two things I must note about this rule. Firstly, any habit you want to can be broken down to just 2 minutes. For instance, want to workout? Put on your shoes, or change into clothing meant for the gym. Soon, the 2 minutes becomes a sort of ritual before the actual habit. Secondly, the goal is to not just do something for 2 minutes. Instead, it trains you to show up and aids in changing your identity like we talked about above. Personally, I used to hate practicing my Chinese handwriting and loathed the thought of doing it. Using the 2-minute rule, I would write as many words I can in 2-minutes. I started thinking to myself “well, I’m already writing and my book is out, might as well continue!” Now, I write a page everyday right after I make my bed every single morning and just before I hit my morning workout.
However, the first step is just that - the first step. It is a feat, but I encourage you to take it further. Now, you must repeat that first step over and over again. This is different from setting something in motion where you meticulously plan every detail over and over again. I’m talking about taking action and doing it. Engaging in repetition encodes a new habit because our minds get used to it and become more comfortable. This is “riding the learning curve” - I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was to hit even three or sometimes two workouts in a week when I first started. You will find that if you can just tell yourself to get over that initial hump, your new habit (or breaking the old habits) will become increasingly more automatic. To summarize from Clear himself:
“Incentives start a habit, identity sustains it”
Rinse and repeat (get it?)
On a more personal note, I think this takeaway is more crucial than ever. I have noticed that our society has become more about talk and less action. We like planning things such as a “3-month diet” or “our next big business idea” but when push comes to shove and we need to execute, we falter. The thought of beginning is daunting and we are afraid of the hard work that could (and will) lie ahead. It is in these decisive moments that determine our subsequent actions i.e., taking that first step is what sets us up for success and then repeating it brings us to success. To quote Clear directly:
“Standardize before you optimize”
Honor commitments
Everything I’ve talked about above would be pointless without honoring your commitments. When I say “commitments” here, I’m not talking about commitments you make to other people (although, you should honor those too). Instead, I am referring to the ones you make in silence; the ones you make to yourself. Why? Because if you don’t, you would be lying to yourself. I have found that by having a commitment and sticking to it, it sets a tone that I can use to approach any goal that I want to achieve: if I commit to it, I will do it. Not a maybe, or a perhaps, but will. I am not saying that the road will be linear, let alone perfect. However, I encourage you to persevere through the “low” times and keep going forward. I believe you will have pushed yourself to new limits from which you can apply to the next goal on your list.
Now, sheer willpower may not always work when it comes to staying committed. While possible, going from a bad habit to a good one can be a massive change that warrants not only a transition but external assistance. In the book, Clear talks about a “commitment device”, a choice made currently to influence future choices. An example I can give is in the form of an agreed upon contract where someone has to get in the habit of working out. If they miss a session, there is a penalty. This could be giving their personal trainer extra money, getting their wife to lock the TV remote control in a safe for 12 hours, or even not being able to enjoy their favorite cheeseburger at their local diner. The penalty is the commitment device - it provides a consequence of not sticking to your commitments!
Remember, sticking to your commitments are often multiple one split-second decisions. You decide in that moment of whether or not you are going to the gym, studying an extra few hours or writing that next blog post (yes, I am calling myself out here). I made a commitment to this blog and give it a shot. What is my commitment device? The money I paid to host my site! Sure, it wasn’t a million dollar investment, but hey - money is money.
I want to leave you all with this quote directly from the book:
“The cost of good habits is now, cost of bad habits are in the future”
Continue reading Part II by clicking here!
