Chapter 20 The Downside of Creating Good Habits
The last chapter of Atomic Habits! I am really glad I chose this book to be my first book of 2024, it was a great way to start the new year. I definitely think it can be listed as one of the books that everyone should read at some point in their life!
Today I took on two chapters!
Chapter 18 The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don’t)
Basically you do not have to necessarily build the habits that everyone tells you that you should! Do what ever works for you, your body, and personality. That is what will lead to success for you.
“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.”
Chapter 19 The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work
Simply put, it is all about taking on tasks that are just difficult enough, but also not too easy when forming new habits!
Chapter 17 How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything
I definitely believe in this! How much easier is it to work out if you have a partner? I know I have never missed a workout if my partner was going with me, but I have definitely missed A LOT of workouts if I intended just to go by myself. There are so many other ways you can use an accountability partner too not just for exercise! I think of all of you as my accountability partners for reading :-)
Chapter 16 How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day
I am not sure about you but one of the best feelings for me is crossing something off of my to do list! The physical act is just so satisfying for me, so when Clear talks about tracking progress in this chapter I know that I am all for it. Physically measuring the progress of a habit is like an instant reward, just like when I am able to cross something off of my to do list! 😊
The 4th Law Make it Satisfying
Chapter 15 The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
As humans we are biologically trained to perform habits that have instant gratifications over the habits that, although may be better for us, don’t produce results until way later. It is definitely hard to think about our future selves when given the choice of what to have for dinner tonight I know that for sure🥴
Chapter 14- How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible
Chapter 14 is about the inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change, sooo instead of make it easy, make it difficult. I know that sounds weird! But as Clear says “Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard.” What bad habits do you have that you think set you back from reaching some of your goals? 🤔
Chapter 13 How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two- Minute Rule
The two minute rule is about mastering the smallest version of the behavior, hence doing the behavior for only 2 minutes. This keeps the behavior from becoming too daunting or difficult in the beginning of building it as a habit. Once you master the easy part, such as reading every day for only two minutes, the rest becomes easier! I have only been reading a chapter of this book a day not only because I think it helps me to retain it better, but it the realistic smaller goal makes it much easier for me to pick it up each day!😊
Chapter 12 The Law of Least Effort
This chapter is not only about making the good habits easier to do but also about how to make the bad habits a little less obtainable. Before even reading this chapter I actually had already done one of the examples Clear mentions, I deleted all the social media apps from my phone. To have to download and sign in makes it a lot more difficult than readily having the app available when ever I feel like it, which was starting to be quite a lot. Let’s see how long I last!
The 3rd Law Make it Easy
Chapter 11 Walk Slowly, but Never Backward
This particular chapter title alone can hold a lot of weight before even beginning the chapter, but I have noticed some of the chapter titles don’t necessarily give insight to what the chapter holds which I think is strange! Nevertheless this chapter talks about the difference between motion and taking action. Motion is passive planning while taking action, is well just that, taking action. “But more often than not, we do it because motion allows us to feel like we’re making progress without running the risk of failure.” I know I am definitely guilty of this 🥲
Chapter 10: How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
A lot of the tactics used in this book are about association, associating behavior with thoughts or cues with behaviors. Essentially it is just all about reframing them, whether bad habits or good. Refreshing the thoughts associated with good and bad habits can help us to break or build them. “Looking at nearly any product that is habit- forming and you’ll see that it does not create a new motivation, but rather latches onto the underlying motives of human nature.”
In Chapter 9, The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits, Clear talks about imitation and the three major groups that we imitate the habits of which include: the close, the tribe, and the powerful. This speaks to the importance of culture, because the culture that we live in determines what behaviors that we may find attractive. This is something that I think about often, it really plays into the variety of different global perspectives there are in the world.
2024-01-12 20:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The 2nd Law- Make it Attractive.
In Chapter 8, How to Make a Habit Irresistible, Clear states, “The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit- forming.” I always knew the importance of dopamine in our lives as humans but this chapter just reinforced this by relating it to habits. Temptation bundling is the tactic presented in this chapter to make habits more attractive, so combining an action that you want to do with something that you need to do.
Chapter 6- Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More and Chapter 7- The Secret to Self Control
Chapter 6 talks about how our environment can become cues for our habits, whether good or bad, “Every habit should have a home.” It also does mention that forming habits in a new environment can be easier because there is no fight against the old cues. While Chapter 7, the last chapter of the 1st Law, dives into self control, “The people with the best self- control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.” This goes hand- in- hand with the last chapter because if you optimize your environment you won’t have has many bad triggers that make you need to use your self control!
Chapter 5- The Best Way to Start a New Habit
The two strategies mentioned in this chapter for forming new habits were implementation intention and habit stacking. As I am writing this I am realizing the irony in using this book as a way to start a new way of posting because it is actually helping me form this new habit. So I guess it was a good idea! This chapter made me realize the way that I appreciate Clear does not just use his life examples for this book but many different studies and stories from other people’s lives. This is always a more effective way of writing because it provides more evidence and can help the reader relate more.
OK now we are in The 1st Law- Make it Obvious!
Chapter 4- The Man Who Didn’t Look Right. Clear provides an activity to help one become more aware of their daily habits by listing them and giving them a score of positive, negative, or natural which he calls The Habits Scorecard.
Chapter 3- How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps. OK so what are the 4 simple steps? Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward. This 4 step pattern always happens in the same order in what can be referred to as a feedback loop. “The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible.”
2024-01-07 19:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 2- How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa) talks about why it is challenging to change our habits our first mistake being that we try to change the wrong thing. There are three layers of behavior change: outcomes, processes, and identity. It is all about shifting the belief behind the behavior! “The process of building habits the is actually the process of becoming yourself.”
2024-01-06 16:11:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 1- The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits is the first part of the section entitled The Fundamentals. This chapter really emphasizes the importance of small changes to make a big difference compared to setting large goals, “It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.” In this new year we are focusing on getting 1% better every day! 😊
2024-01-05 18:00:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Just an update after only reading the introduction! The author, James Clear, uses the introduction to get personal and explain his own story and motivation for Atomic Habits which isn’t only a book but a way of life for him. He explains how it is all about his 4 step model of habits including: cue, craving, response, and reward and the 4 laws of behavior change.
2024-01-04 19:09:22 +0000 UTC View Post
I feel like this will be a great book to start the New Year! And I think instead of just one post about the book I will take you along with my reading of it keeping you updated on my progress and what I think 🥰
2024-01-03 01:00:58 +0000 UTC View Post
My last post of 2023 I can’t believe it! What are your plans for the new year?! 🎉🥳
2023-12-31 21:01:21 +0000 UTC View Post
How do we feel about long books? This is one of my favorite reads of the year but also one of the longest🤦🏼♀️ It is hard to keep the momentum going sometimes to finish!
2023-12-26 18:10:23 +0000 UTC View Post
I cannot believe it’s already almost 2024, I have to start setting my goals for the new year 🙈
2023-12-24 14:18:25 +0000 UTC View Post
I noticed I haven’t been reading as much as I usually do and I think it’s because I was trying too hard to try new books that aren’t what I usually read! So I’m taking a break from venturing out for a little to return to what I prefer and know I like, non-fiction historical has always been my go to😌
2023-12-21 01:15:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Should I make a Christmas list of all the books I want in 2024? 🤔
2023-12-15 19:12:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Whoops I was caught by the pool without a book, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my 2023 book recap🤔 maybe I will share what I found
2023-12-11 00:15:49 +0000 UTC View Post
So excited I got together with @glowwithserena and we made a new OFTV episode! Can’t wait for you all to see
2023-12-06 02:28:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Sometimes when I feel like my attention span isn’t all the way there to read a whole book I pick up a poetry book! It is always nice to switch it up and poetry is the perfect way to do that!
2023-12-01 21:29:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Do we like the blue hair 🙈 I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to read much lately but it’s okay to take breaks sometimes!
2023-11-26 01:59:24 +0000 UTC View Post