This was the perfect book to pick up after about a month of travel, during which I fell out of many of my positive habits and routines. Atomic Habits offers a clear and entertaining overview of how human habit formation works and provides a great step-by-step framework for building healthy positive habits and culling negative ones. James Clear does a good job tying in real-world examples of his key concepts, showing how the laws of habit formation show up in every day life, in the lives of highly accomplished people, and in any number of disciplines.
The thing I most appreciated about Clear’s presentation was the way in which he constantly reminds the reader that positive action is something we each can take at any given time on any given day, and that patience, persistence, and reflection are far more important than ambitious goal-setting and radical change.
Off the top of my head, here are some of my biggest take-aways from Atomic Habits:
1) Improving by 1% every day for a year makes you 37 times better than you would have been; 1% worse every day basically drops you to zero;
2) Make habits a part of your identity, not just an action you do. However, be open to changing your identity as needed to accomplish your goals;
3) Habit tracking and accountability partners are highly effective tools to stay on track;
4) A goal is nothing without a functioning system with which to accomplish it;
5) Make it easier to build good habits by starting small and structuring your environment to maximize your chances for success;
6) Be specific in when and how you intend to perform daily habits.
The Once and Future Lit 