Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits written by James Clear is a wonderful book about habits system. it says a regular routine or practice known as a “atomic habit” is a part of the system of compound growth that is not only quick and simple to perform but also a source of incredible strength. Man is how he has habits. A person who has good habits, it will give him benifits over perios of time. A Man who has bad habits, will punish him over time. A person who has Heart attack today, had it coming from last 3 years. he didn’t Monitor his cholestrol and eat high cholestrol food. and he got heart attache due to bad eating habit over time.

Bad habits keep coming back, not because you don’t want to change but rather because your strategy for change is flawed. If you’re ready to continue with changes for years, they’ll compound into amazing benefits even though they initially appear minor and trivial.

3 Lessons can be extracted from book “Atomic Habits” in order to create good habits and avoid Bad Habits

• We follow a four-step cycle every time we practice a habit: cue, craving, response, and reward.
• We should make new habits evident, appealing, simple, and fulfilling if we wish to change our behavior.
• A habit tracker can be a fun method to monitor your development and keep you from slacking off.

Lesson-1: 4 steps of Habit

James contends that the environment acts as an invisible force to mold human behavior when it comes to habits. Therefore, the first action in performing any habit is prompt. Though it might not always be, but most of the time it will be. The final three steps of the four-stage pattern are as follows:

1. Cue. a clue that points to a potential reward, such as the aroma of baking cookies or a pitch black room that will soon be illuminated.
2. Craving. the drive to make a change so that you can reap the benefits, like tasting the cookie’s deliciousness or being able to see.
3. Response. Whatever you need to think or do to reach the reward.
4. Reward. The joy you have after making the adjustment, together with intention to do it again

A number of well-known techniques, such as BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits behavior model, Gretchen Rubin’s four inclinations, and Charles Duhigg’s habit loop, attempt to forecast how and why we behave in the way that we do. James gives a more sophisticated version of what Duhigg discussed in The Power of Habit, and while each of these strategies is unique, none of them is in conflict with the others.

Lesson-2: Form Habits by making them easy and Obvious

James then develops four rules of behavior modification, one for each phase of the loop, from the four-step pattern he offers. Here they are, along with some suggestions for how to utilize them to encourage positive behavior and make negative behavior more difficult:

Make it clear. Put your fruits on display rather than hiding them in the fridge.
Make it appealing. Start with the fruit you enjoy the most so that when you see it, you’ll actually want to eat some.
Make it simple. Don’t focus on fruits that are difficult to peel in order to cause unnecessary conflict. Apples and bananas, for instance, are quite simple to eat.
Make it fulfilling. You’ll like eating the fruit you choose and feel healthier as a result if you do!

These can be used to a variety of healthy routines, such as exercising, working on a side project, spending more time with family, etc. For bad behaviors, on the other hand, do the reverse. Make them undetectable, unpleasant, challenging, and unsatisfying. You may, for instance, Hide your Ciggeretes, impose penalties, throw out your all lighters, and restrict your smoking to the outside cold only.

Lesson-3: Track Your Habits

Making and breaking habits is more enjoyable when you have a foundation like this. It’s crucial to avoid taking on too much at once even if you might want to start working on several things at once sooner rather than later. Tracking your habits with a habit tracker is a simple method to hold yourself responsible without getting overwhelmed.

The concept is straightforward: You keep a list of all the behaviors you wish to adopt or give up, and you mark the ones you were successful with at the end of each day. A single piece of paper, a notebook, a calendar, or a digital tool like an app can all serve as this record.

This tactic is derived from what is referred to as the Seinfeld productivity trick. Every day that Jerry Seinfeld came up with a joke, he reportedly marked a giant “X” on his calendar. He soon intended to keep the chain intact. It’s a straightforward but successful method for fostering healthy habits.

We should all begin this process right away because habits are the self-improvement equivalent of compound interest.

Summary

We all need to figure out what works for us when it comes to altering our behavior. Having said that, there are a few methods that have been supported by science that we should all attempt first. A comprehensive, entertaining, engrossing, and easy to comprehend collection of these tactics may be found in Atomic Habits. You should definitely use it as your starting point if you want to learn more about the science of habits.

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