Doing a little consistently adds up to being a lot over time. Habits are the little things that we do without giving it much thought, mostly automatically. A heuristic learned from experience. Depending on what habits are forged, they can be liberating or debilitating. Habits can be helpful, by facilitating growth in what is valued. Habits can be terrible, by making it hard to do the desired activities. Formed habits are lasting and automatic. This is a practical guide in how to create good habits, and overcome bad ones. Four principles of habit formation are to 1) make it obvious, 2) make it attractive, 3) make it easy, and 4) make it satisfying. Removing habits requires an inversion of the principles. By fostering or removing the very small actions that are habits, the actions will aggregate into a huge difference.

A tiny change is usually unnoticeable. This change is frustrating because improvements are not noticeable, not significant. But it is very meaningful over time. These small actions, these habits, are what Clear considers to be the compound interest of self-improvement. Alternatively, repeating tiny poor decisions leads to toxic behavior over time. Individuals can choose which habits to cultivate, which result in vastly different outcomes. Progress is not linear and outcomes are delayed. Success usually seems quick, like a dramatic event, but it was all the small events that proceeded that made it happen.

Habit formation takes on four steps which are cue, craving, response, and reward. The cue is what triggers the behavior in anticipation of reward. Cravings are the motivations to behavior, the desire to act to obtain a change. For cues to be turned into cravings, they need to be interpreted by thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The response is the thought or action that is performed to a given craving. Reward is the sought after desired result which either teaches or satisfies.

Creating habits requires the use of the four steps to form habits, while removing bad habits requires the inverse of the process that creates habits. To set a cue, it needs to be obvious. To create a craving, it has to be attractive. To get a response, it was to be easy to do. To want the reward, it has to be satisfying. To remove a bad habit would require making the cue invisible, making the craving unattractive, making the response difficult, and making the reward unsatisfying. Making a plan, bundling habits, and designing an environment that promotes the desired results are part of the system that enables habit creation (or its inverse). Culture is a major influence on individual behaviors, which means joining a culture consistent of the desired behavior makes it easy to change to it.

Failing to change habits is not a problem with the individual, it is a problem with the system being used. To change a habit is difficult when it is the wrong thing being changed or changing it the wrong away. Changing a habit means becoming a different person, a different way of viewing oneself. Not changing the identity causes many to go back to their previous habits because that is what they consider as their identity. This is because there is pressure to maintain the self-image and avoid contradictions. Changing habits requires unlearning, and editing beliefs.

The science background into motivation looks at dopamine, which is a brain chemical that facilitates desire to act. It is not the reward itself that produces actions, but the anticipation of reward. Actions that get rewarded are going to be repeated. Alternatively, actions that get punished are going to be avoided. Bad habits are a vicious cycle in which they create the feelings that they try to numb.

This book is a very practical and useful guide to change behavior, but it should come with caveats. Not necessarily problems, but limitations. 1) Having a lot of science to back up the research allows a greater understanding of the topic, but in and of itself does not make this a scientist book. The author creates a system where the benefits of the system are represented, but if the individual should fail, it’s the system they were using. Science requires the hypothesis to be subject to a falsifiability test, which this book does not have because it is the system that needs to change. 2) Lack of falsifiability also leads to a survivorship bias. Even though the author did discuss survivorship bias in the book under a different context, there is no account of people who used the systems appropriately and still failed to improve. There are different ways to fail to change a habit, but each different way comes with its own set of problems which can shape the outcomes. 3) Part of the book discusses lying about one’s identity to foster the identity that is claimed. Faking it until the habit forms and becomes the identity. Besides being an example that has a host of problems that are not discussed, it also contradicts another part of the book that discusses the need to be open and honest about what behavior needs to change. 4) In combination, it reads like a system that is a panacea to all behavioral problems. That there is no limit to what people can do should they follow the steps to create a system that facilitates their desired behavior, which is ironic given that the author does discuss limitation in another context.
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Since coming out six years ago, Atomic Habits has remained on several best seller lists, and for good reason. It’s a self-help book, yes, but it isn’t like so many self-help books that pontificate about things most people can’t control. James Clear’s observations and advice are based on solid social science and past experience. My most gratifying take away after listening to the audio version is that much of what I do already is right. More and more I kept saying to myself, “Hey, that’s exactly what I do!” I’m anxious to peruse the appendix of the book since throughout “Atomic Habits,” Clear, who is the narrator, pointed out that copies of various templates for tracking habits are available at AtomicHabits.com. I listened to the audio version of Clear’s book, and he narrated in a very effective way. I’m glad I took the time to listen to James Clear’s book, and I think there is something for just about everyone in it. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I liked this and it does a great job of laying out a plan for developing good habits and getting rid of bad habits. Things are laid out step by step and very simply. I like that each chapter starts out with a historical anecdote about a historical figure and their habits. This made the book very fun and easy to read.

I was surprised at how readable this was. I speed right through it. It was entertaining and insightful. Nothing in here is rocket science and there are no huge revelations. However, there is some food for thought, especially around adapting your environment to support your habits. I realized I do a lot of that already without even realizing it. Just little things like laying out an outfit the night before so I can get going early in the morning without feeling stressed. Or laying my journal on my pillow in the morning so I don't forget to write in it before I go to bed.

I think the most intriguing part of this book to me was the portion about mind set. How you need to say "I am a person who..." rather than "I would like to be a person who..." I never really thought about how that would change your mindset, so that was interesting to me.

I also liked the idea of laying out your day as a list of habits. It lets you see what you actually do in a day and analyze that in a more objective way to see which parts of your day are sabotaging habits you want to develop and which parts are enhancing habits.

There is a lot of focus on organizing your surroundings, friends, and lifestyle around habits you want to enforce. All of this makes a lot of sense and, in general, this is just good common sense to follow. I think the points made about how developing habits takes time and you need to forgive yourself if you lapse are also important ones.

I think the hard part for most people is actually putting some of these skills into action and not just forgetting about this book as they move forward in life. Sticking with something consistently and long-term is always hard. It's especially hard with something like eating or exercise where you don't get the immediate gratification of instant success. This is discussed in this book as well.

My Summary (5/5): Overall, while there is nothing really new or earth-shattering here, this does lay out an easy to follow process for developing good habits in simple steps. There are some intriguing suggestions to help you analyze your surrounds and life to pinpoint why you continue with bad habits and have trouble developing good ones. I found this to be an easy and entertaining read and I think everyone would benefit from reading this because it does really make you sit down and think about your life and how you could improve aspects of it. I find myself thinking back to this book a lot in the weeks following reading it. ( )

Ausführlich und verständlich, ohne zu schwafeln. Das hat mir gut gefallen! ( )

"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
This is a very inspirational book. It is also practical and user-friendly. Here are my major take-aways:
1. As you continue to layer small changes on top of one another, the scales start to move.... "small changes often appear to make no difference until you reach a critical threshold."
2. How to shape a good habit: make it easy, attractive, and satisfying.
3. How to discourage a bad habit: make it invisible, unattractive, hard, and unsatisfying.

This is a book I want to keep on hand for reflection and review...as the author has observed, "A lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote."

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