Atomic Habits: A new approach to success

 What is this post about?

As some of you with the reading habit might have already guessed- this is indeed about my learnings from the highly popular Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I am sharing what I perceived the book is about and what parts that might work for me and what would not.

If I were to highlight the most impactful parts- I would have to bulk copy large parts of few of the chapters!

But to start with, I will talk about my impressions and what really caught my attention!

Power of atomic habits

The author introduces readers to the impact of aggregation of marginal improvements over one's lifetime as the only sustainable way to be truly successful. 

This stands out-

"Even if you got 1% better every day, you would be 37% better by the end of the year "

Image borrowed from free downloadable media resources from https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits/media

"Success in life is not about 1 ground breaking life changing transformation, but sustained daily habits accumulated over a lifetime"

The Plateau of Latent Potential 

The author introduces us to his concept of "The Plateau of Latent Potential". 

Here, he explains that the results of all compounding habits is always necessarily delayed. The key to success is to break through what he calls the plateau of latent potential. 

If you are finding it hard to build a new habit, or appreciate its true power, it is not because you have lost to ability to improve, but that you have NOT CROSSED the plateau of latent potential.

Image borrowed from free downloadable media resources from https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits/media

Many examples can be found in daily life - You have been doing your cardio for days, but haven't lost any body fat. You have been learning a new technology for weeks, but you don't seem to have got a good grip on the key concepts yet. You have been doing regular walks for months, but your health just seems to be unaltered.

It is ever so easy to give up at this point of time.

Here, the author quotes a true life story of motivation:

Mastery requires patience. The San Antonio Spurs, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, have a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis hanging in their locker room: “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.”

When you "finally" breakthrough the plateau, people call it an overnight success. While on the contrary, all your efforts since long were being "saved" through the years. 

This, the author calls, as what is the "human equivalent" of geological pressure. Two tectonic plates could be rubbing each other for hundreds of years, in exactly the same manner, without causing anything else. However, one fine day, they rub each other, in exact same way just one more time- And causes a shattering earthquake.

YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT. 

Forget Goals, Focus Systems

The author points out that setting goals to achieve success in life actually postpones the prospect of being happy.

We say "When I lose 10 pounds, I will be happy", "When I pass this exam, it will make me super proud". While it doesn't harm in setting goals for success, but it actually your way to telling yourself to NOT be happy until the goal is reached.

Consider this-

The GOAL is any sport is to achieve the highest score. But it would be ridiculous to just sit through the game and stare at the scoreboard in order to win. In the words of 3 time super bowl winner Bill Walsh- 

"The score takes care of itself"

Some rules for why goals may not result in long term success:

#Winners and losers have the same goals. 

Goals suffer from a serious case of survivorship bias- states the author. Which means, if setting the goal of- For example, winning the Tour De France was enough, then everyone would have made it. Every time a national team enters the Olympics, the goal has always been to WIN. It has always been there. The reason why one fine day the team wins the gold, fighting from being the underdog - Is obviously something else.

#Achieving a goal changes your life, for the moment

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.

The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.

The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a

musician.

HERE'S WHAT COULD POTENTIALLY START YOU UP ON A LIFETIME OF SUCCESS: 

A SYSTEM OF ATOMIC CHANGE

If you have trouble breaking a bad habit, it is not because you are not trying hard enough, it is because you have a bad SYSTEM for change.

Habits are like atoms. Small and mighty. A system of atomic habits - Is a regular practice or routine that builds itself from the small atoms of self improvement over a period of time, to result in long term compounded growth.

THE FOUR STEP PROCESS TO BUILDING ATOMIC HABITS

Step-1: Make it obvious

The author suggests the habit scorecard- Which highlights for us our daily habits that are not helping us on the path or direction of desired success. We know already we have these habits, but the point of this exercise is to make it OBVIOUS to ourselves what our current habit list is- without feeling any guilt or bias. That is what the first step would be- Facing the reality and telling ourselves the facts about our current habits. 

The following questions could be effective in scoring a "+" or a "-" against a habit-

“Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? "

"Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?”

These deeper questions are suggested because all our habits(positive and negative) serve a purpose, so it would be hard to mark them as + or -. These will be many occasions when checking your mobile everyday as soon as you wake up- Might help you keep yourself on latest news from friends and family.

HABIT STACKING

Meditation. After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.

Exercise. After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.

Gratitude. After I sit down to dinner, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened today.

Tie your desired behavior to what you already do.

Step-2: Make it attractive

Here the author speaks of "The dopamine driven feedback loop". The thing about habits and dopamine is that, dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure but also when you anticipate pleasure.

What is named as habit stacking with temptation bundling, is suggested here. For example-

    [When] I pull out my phone, I do 10 burpees(need)

     [After] I do 10 burpees, I check my Facebook feed for 5 minutes(want)

The hope here is, in order to get the pleasure from browsing the latest news or in anticipation of the pleasure, I complete my 10 burpees.

The greater the anticipation of the reward/pleasure, greater is the Dopamine spike.

To make your habits even more desirable, try to be in the society or company of other individuals who greatly appreciate this desired life style. Motivation is overrated, environment plays a more important role ;)

Step-3: Make it easy

Walk slowly, but never backward

"Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible.

It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work." 

says James Clear.

Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and water bottle ahead of time.

Want to improve your diet? Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to healthy, ready-to-eat options during the week.

These are some examples of making your good habits the path of least resistance.

 

 A yet another extremely effective way to act upon our desired habits are to limit them to 2 minutes. When you start a new habit, in the beginning, it should not take more than 2 minutes to do. The idea is to make the new habit as easy as possible to start with.

Your goal maybe to run a marathon, but the gateway habit is putting on your running shoes.

Standardize before you optimize. You can't improve something that does not exist.

Inversion of this law: Make the bad habits very difficult to perform. Unsubscribe from email newsletters, cancel club memberships, hide away deep fried snacks in a shelf out of direct reach.

Step-4: Make it satisfying

The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy—increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of behavior change—make it

satisfying—increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time.

Here James Clear suggests to use instant gratification to our advantage. However it is important to select short-term pleasures that are aligned with our identity rather than those that set us back on our journey of self improvement.

For example, the reward for exercising cant be eating a bowl of ice cream. 

A family for example, put the money into their "Trip to Europe" account, each time they cooked at home instead of eating home.

A better alternative of the reward for a rigorous workout would be a relaxing massage.

I, for example, have setup my saving back account to credit a fraction(10%) of every payment transaction on my card to a higher-interest account called "Travel".

Closing reflections

I see myself using this self help book as a manual rather than a one time read. It has some great inspiration in terms of real life anecdotes, some scientific approaches - aligned with natural workings of the human brain, that could potentially lead to a sustainable yet remarkable successes. There are some practical, printable tools if we plan to spread the word within friends and family, available at https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits/media