Habits are the building blocks of our day to day lives. The compound interest of life. Something a small habit in the short term could blossom, and become something life changing in the long term.
The Power of Habits
With habits, you get what you repeat. Every small action we take whether it be intentional or unintentional is a single action taken towards our trajectory. Eating one unhealthy meal won’t make you overweight, but doing that consistently day in and day out for years on end could. Spending $5 on fast food doesn’t sound much for one day, but eating out everyday of the week will quickly add up compared to how much you could save by making your own food at home. If you want to become the person that you want to be you need to focus on the small things you do everyday that will slowly tilt your trajectory in the direction that you desire.
Commitment to Improvement
Setting goals is important to winning in a shorter term, but if you commit to systems you can continue winning in the longer term. Think about a time where you set a goal for yourself; after you reach the goal you feel accomplished for a bit but then you need to set another goal to continue. If instead you just create systems for continuous improvement, you will have no specific limit to what you can reach; as long as you constantly improve on the system that you’ve created. 1% improvement every single day doesn’t necessarily sound like very much, but after a year that is almost 38 times better than you were before!
Bad Habits
Unfortunately this also works in reverse. Which is why its very important to crush bad habits early on. Its like trying to boil a frog; they don’t realize its happening if it happens gradually, but they will jump out of the water if its all at once.
Outcomes, Processes, and Identity
“Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what you believe.”
– James Clear in Atomic Habits
Decide who you want to be, figure out the type of person that could get that outcome. Your identity is spawned from a culmination of every action you take; every action is a vote towards the person you will become. You want to become a more cleanly person? Clean up your plate after you finish eating. Dust one section of the house everyday of the week. Make your bed after you wake up in the morning. Every small action is one step closer to that person you want to become.
Awareness
Sometimes the first step to improving on our habits, or even eliminating our bad ones, is to be aware we are even doing them. Habits are automatic and most of them are done without even realizing it. Being aware of oneself is important in the process of being who we want to become. Is this habit aiming me in the right direction? If not then it may be time to focus on eliminating that habit.
Start a New Habit with An Old One
“One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.”
– James Clear in Atomic Habits
A powerful tool you can use to create more positive habits quickly is habit stacking. After doing one of your habits, you can create another one that is either done after the first one or simultaneously. If you go to the gym and you want to get more reading done; you could get some audio books and read while you are working out. You are using one positive habit to fuel another one.
Motivation vs. Environment
Motivation tends to be vastly overestimated by most people. They think that they can just wait until they are motivated and then start working on something. Environment is often a more powerful tool in creating action. Habits are initiated by a cue; we are more likely to notice cues that are obvious and stand out. We should make the cues of good habits obvious in our environment to cultivate and grow them.
Self Control and Temptation
The key to avoiding bad habits is to make them invisible. People with higher self control will spend less time in tempting situations rather than trying to resist them. Want to cut down on eating junk food? Rather than trying to force yourself to avoid them; don’ have them in your house all together. Self control is just a short term solution, but it wont work consistently in the long term.
Attractive Opportunities
“Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.”
– James Clear in Atomic Habits
The more attractive you make a habit or situation the more likely you will be to repeat it. Set up your environment in such a way that you will look forward to doing the habit at every applicable opportunity. You could also pair an attractive habit along with a not so attractive (but still positive) habit to help build consistency in the latter. Highlight and remember all the positives the habit could potentially create for you in the long run and use that as a motivation to repeat it.
Slowly is better than Backward
Going forward even an inch is better than stepping backwards a centimeter. Even making small, which could sometimes feel like insignificant, progress is better than doing nothing, which will end up feeling like you are stepping back in the context of the person you want to be. Habit creation is done via repetition. Repeating a habit many times will ingrain it into your being, not necessarily the amount of time you have been doing it. Skipping a habit once could signal to your subconscious that it is okay to miss, while even making an attempt at it will propel you forward.
Low Effort Low Friction
Creating a habit that has low friction will be very easy to repeat and easier to add to your repertoire. Set yourself up to succeed; put yourself in a situation that you will follow through on your habits. Human beings are prone to slowly gravitate towards what is easiest. Use this fact to your advantage.
Sticking to Habits
“One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.”
– James Clear in Atomic Habits
Tracking your habits or making a check list are examples of powerful tools you can use to improve your progress. It can be something very simple like making an X on a calendar, but psychologically it will make a huge impact. Seeing clear evidence of your progress is an effective way to make you take action. Additionally, streaks are very important; you could miss a day but you run a risk of breaking a streak. If you have a ten day streak you will be especially careful not to break that as it would take a significant amount of time to return to that level. Self satisfaction is an effective tool in keeping that streak alive.
Riding the Edge
“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.”
– James Clear in Atomic Habits
The greatest threat to our success isn’t failure but boredom. Doing something that has no difficulty will cause us to become bored and make us lose interest. Even amateurs can find success in things in a one-off situation, but what makes someone a professional is that they will turn up even when they don’t feel like it. Ignoring feelings is sometimes important if you want to reap the long term success that you thirst for.
Continual Improvement
Even after a habit is successfully implemented it still takes self reflection to continue to cultivate it. A habit, being automatic, is often not paid attention to; which means any little mistakes or shortcuts it could cause us to create may be missed. It is important to pay attention to what you are doing, pay attention to your habits, to make sure you can continually improve them. Don’t let yourself be stuck in a corner, always go beyond!
Atomic Habits
Most of these concepts on discussed in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. I greatly recommend you read this book, its incredibly important for becoming a better you.
Atomic Habits (Hard Cover) on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ci2iUT
Atomic Habits (Paper Back) on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ehFTsv
Atomic Habits (Audio Book) on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2VtgxPG
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Tagged : Habits
