Have you ever heard that we only use 10 percent of our brain? That’s because the other 90 percent is subconscious, and you’re unaware. The subconscious programming you have is the software on the hardware of a computer. You don’t even realize it’s working until you change that programming has one word. It’s called habits, and they control entire life.
In this book lessons article, we’re going over the five big ideas from James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” and how you can break bad ones and install new ones to change a life. It covers everything you need to know about building habits and tricks you into doing certain things more systematically.
Top 5 Ideas From Atomic Habits Book
Are you curious to learn more about the secret of success? What mistakes to avoid that cause the majority of people to fail? James Clear, a world-renowned expert in the science of habit formation, reveals how easy-to-make changes to your environment and lifestyle. ‘Atomic Habits’ promises to give you a counterintuitive and easy application to understand how to eliminate bad habits that hold you back. You can increase the likelihood that you’ll engage in chosen good habits.
The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom, because our habits become ordinary. Also, we want to derail our progress so we can create variety. The idea that the human brain loves a challenge as long as it’s within the optimal zone of difficulty is an idea that I’m familiar with. I will discuss 5 notes and tips from the “Atomic habits” book to help you modify your habits.
1. Accumulation of time
So the first idea of atomic habits is the accumulation of time, your habits systematically. It can drastically improve your life. Habits are repeated enough times to become automatic with the ultimate purpose of solving life’s problems with as little energy or effort as possible. It means habits can work for or against you, especially when discussing habit compounding.
This compounding can be very drastically positive or negative in your life. The more positive habits that compound your life, the more positive, healthy, and better your life will be. Habit-forming has a cycle comprised of four different parts or stages.
- First, you have the cue, the craving, the response, and the reward.
The cue can be answering your e-mails. You begin to feel stressed while working on other things in life. In this case, it’s a negative habit.
Once you understand the cycle, you are better equipped to start habit-forming. So James Clear presents us with four rules for habit-forming. These rules can be used in their positive form to build new habits. Or you can use these rules in their negative form to destroy or tackle those bad habits.
2. Make your habits obvious
The first rule is to make your habits obvious, and you usually use the environment. Habit-forming has everything to do with behavioral change, and behavioral change has much to do with awareness of the space. In that sense, it’s essential to associate a specific behavior with time and location.
- Use your physical environment to raise awareness of these behaviors.
These habits are very important to building new ones. So if you are currently trying to drink more water daily, you can try to place a bowl of water in the workstation. It is because you’ll be constantly reminded of that habits. Another thing author suggests is that you start trying something called habits stacking habits. Stacking mainly means that you can start associating once you’ve developed the first habit.
3. Make your habits attractive
The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to be habit-forming. A very easy way to make everything more attractive is associating your habits with a social group. People are more prone to follow habits that either current social group follows.
It does not necessarily mean that you will mimic all the behaviors of the people around you. But it instead means that you can gather a lot of inspiration from people following the habits you want to follow. It can be very beneficial for someone to read a lot to be inserted in a book club.
4. Make your habits easy
It is the easiest part of habit-forming. You must trick yourself into starting habits instead of tricking yourself into finishing a habit. James Clear talks a lot about this regarding fitness habits and fitness goals. As a first step, you try to show up at the gym.
Maybe a 15-minute workout is best suited for you to start developing your fitness habits instead of pursuing this ultimate goal of being very fitness-prone. An excellent way to summarize this is to use it to manage through the two-minute rule that says that to accomplish something, you must try.
Notes: For instance, if you’re trying to write a book, instead of telling yourself that you need to write 1000 words every day, why not sell yourself to open your laptop and write at least a small paragraph. When you form the habit of showing up every day, you are much more prone to start developing that habit at a second stage.
5. Make your habits satisfying
We are more likely to start developing habits that grant rewards because our human brain prioritizes instant rewards over rewards. You can create these rewards for yourself in many different ways. They mostly depend on your budget, availability, or time.
For instance, if you are trying to tackle a large research paper, maybe you can tell yourself that you can watch an episode of your favorite series after every thousand words. If you have to budget, maybe you can tell yourself that you deserve a massage after seven successful days at the gym. However, James Clear approaches this problem with people of different kinds and budgets.
He says the most satisfying way to build habits is to keep a habit together. You should focus on your progress and not only on your goals. Habit tracking is a fundamental part of habitability, although it can build habits without habit tracking.
Notes: It’s recommended that if you’re starting from zero, a habit tracker will improve your experience. It will allow you to feel accountable for your habit-building and make your experience more thorough and positive.
Conclusion
The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do. Habits do not restrict freedom, and they create it. The people who don’t have their habits handled often have the least freedom.
James Clear makes understanding habits easy, and the book is logical. As a mentor, it resonated with me because it is truly the tiny habits that make a big difference. Ultimately it’s the system that leads you to the outcome you want. James Clear atomic habits do get the thumbs up. You can tell he’s done years of research, and I’d love to know what you think.
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Atomic Habits Book Review With Summary
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