1% A Day Keeps The Failure Away

Over the past couple months, I have been more invested in an assignment than ever before. As part of PGP 11, alongside my classmates, I was given the task of reading James Clear’s New York Bestselling book: Atomic Habits. Before I even begin breaking down the book, I want to make it known how very much I enjoyed it. It has been a long time since I have fallen in love with a book, and I’m so glad this was the book that ended my literary solitude.

I made the conscious decision to listen to this book as an audio-book; something I’ve never done before. This was in large part due to my recently found passion of listening to podcasts. In particular, I have began listening to business-related podcasts, and I think the similarities between these podcasts and Atomic Habits is what drew me in. I found myself addicted to putting in my headphones and listening to the book every time I had the chance, and I was genuinely quite sad when it came to an end. It felt like a part of me, a positive habit if you will. Listening daily made me so motivated to make positive change in my life, and as corny as it is to say, this book has thoroughly changed the way I see a lot of situations in my life.

Atomic Habits is broken up in to four main sections. These sections feature the most important “laws” your habits must follow in order for them to succeed. Clear does an amazing job at breaking down the psychological nuances of habit-building, and expressing it in friendly terminology to help the reader out. Each section builds on the next, and when the information found within each is combined, magical things begin to happen.

The First Law: Make It Obvious

Think of a habit you have in your life (biting your nails, procrastinating, etc.). Now think of how and why that habit started. It’s probably pretty difficult, because when we think of our habits, we don’t think of how they started or why we do them, we just think of the fact we do them. This is the kind of thing that Clear is getting at with the first law. Habits don’t just arise from nowhere, there is a cue, or a series of them, that dictate each habit, whether positive or negative.

Most of the time, this works against us, and feeds our bad habits. However, when noticed, we can manipulate this law to work in our favour. The main two cues for forming habits are time and location. So when deciding how to implement a positive habit in to your life, looking towards certain times and locations for where to implement the habit is highly effective. This will make it obvious when action needs to take place.

Here is my favourite quote from this section:

“Every habit is initiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out. Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment. Gradually, your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behaviour. The context becomes the cue.”

The Second Law: Make It Attractive

This is my favourite of the four laws, and the one that has helped me the most. We all have goals we want to achieve and good habits we want to build. The problem for most people, like me, is that these aspirations aren’t attractive. The only thing attractive about the whole thing is the idea that we achieved the goal or that we have formed the habit. Whereas what’s really important is actually getting there, and it’s nearly impossible to succeed when the work needed to put in is so unattractive. 

Clear’s example of going to the gym is one that spoke to me. You see, going to the gym sounds nice at all, but I’ve never been able to make it a habit because hauling my ass to parkgate in between homework and basketball practices is pretty unappealing. What this second law has taught me however is that I need to make the idea of getting to the gym more attractive. This could be as simple as creating a schedule to go the gym only on days when I don’t have basketball. That way I am a lot more inclined to want to go. 

This law is also versatile in the sense that if you want to break bad habits, it’s as simple as making it unattractive. Its a complete inversion of the techniques I just mentioned, and I bet most people would feel more comfortable working on cutting out their bad habits before starting new, positive ones.

Both applications of this law have already made an impact on my daily life. I had the terrible habit of picking my nails for about 10 years, and always got told off by my parents for it. Reading this book made me realize how I could beat the habit, and I then crafted a plan to put an end to my nasty nails. I made it attractive by making a $50 bet with my dad that I could beat it, but this also made it unattractive as I didn’t want to lose the money. On top of that, the idea of having nice nails was something that fuelled my drive to succeed. My dad gave me until March the 1st to have my nails grown out and nicely shaped, but I was so determined I had succeeded by Christmas! Although it may seem like a small habit to break, for me, it was so much more about the fact that I had beaten a habit I had for so long. It meant a lot.

Here is my favourite quote from this section:

“The human mind knows how to get along with others. It wants to get along with others. This is our natural mode. You can override it—you can choose to ignore the group or to stop caring what other people think—but it takes work. Running against the grain of your culture requires extra effort.”

The Third Law: Make It Easy

The third law of behaviour change works closely with the second. This third law states that habits must be easy to complete, or they won’t actually become a habit that sticks with you. The feeling of completing a goal is a great one. It gives you confidence, motivation, and leaves you wanting more. This is the basis of the third law’s effects. Making a habit easy, at least in the beginning, will help get it off the ground.

The “Two-Minute Rule” states that new habits shouldn’t take more than two minutes to complete. While this may seem pointless and will not let you reap any benefits, applying this rule will give you the impression that the habit is easy… because it is, at least for the time being. Once a habit has been completed with ease a few times, slowly making them a little less easy will guide you on the path to the greater success you wish to see. Building habits is almost purely a psychological game, and the human brain loves to succeed, no matter how easy.

Here is my favourite quote from this section:

“Business is a never-ending quest to deliver the same result in an easier fashion.”

The Fourth Law: Make It Satisfying

The fourth and final law works on the basis that the human brain is wired to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards. It’s why I love ice cream and watching Netflix, it gives me an immediate feeling of satisfaction even though I know that its not good for me in the long run. I truly envy people who have managed to rewire themselves to know that small, immediate pleasures are not worth it, and prefer to do things like eat healthy and save money in order to give themselves a greater feeling of satisfaction down the line.

The Cardinal Rule Of Behaviour Change is “What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.” This makes it hard to break free of our minds pledge to make us feel good right away. With a little bit of help and commitment though, a better way of thinking can be achieved. As I was reading this section, Clear mentioned the idea of using visuals to aid the internal fight of satisfaction. The idea of using a calendar to track progress inspired me to make the decision that starting February 1st, I will put up a calendar in my room and either mark a big red X on days I don’t work out, or a big green check mark on days I do work out. It’ll be the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see before I go to sleep.

Nothing is better than the feeling of being satisfied with ones self, and this law is really just the icing on the cake of all habit forming.

Here is my favourite quote from this section:

“Put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.”

Activities and Forms

Throughout the process of reading the book, I completed various bonus activities that coincide with what Clear is trying to get across with this book. These activities are little forms that are used to help analyze daily habits as well as designing plans to fix/start them. These forms served as a great way to put thoughts and ideas on to paper to help hold me, the reader, more accountable. I really enjoyed how short and simple the forms were as they didn’t feel like homework or a burden of any sort, they were purely designed to help people like me. Below you can find these four activities.

Wrapping this all up, I’ve had almost as great a time reflecting on the book as actually reading and completing it. The entire process for start to finish has been extremely beneficial and has truly already helped me in my daily life. Through his carefully thought-out work, James Clear has helped me to see things in a new light, and I’m looking forward to continuing on with PGP as the year progresses.