Have you tried creating better habits in the past, maybe you have tried quitting something or changing the way you do something only to be pulled back to the undesirable habit that you were trying so hard to run away from in the first place?
We're told that building better habits is the key to transformation, however, where do we begin? How can we create lasting change in our lives without all the headaches that go along with habit change?
Sometimes it seems like we have so many bad habits, how can we possibly transform all of them. My belief is that to understand anything further we can always turn to books.
Once we learn how something works we can implement it in our lives and see what works for us and disregard what doesn't.
So today I want to share the 3 key lessons I learned from what I believe is one of the best books I have read on breaking bad habits and creating good ones, which is Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Atomic Habits is one of the books that I always turn to whenever I want to break a bad habit and create a good habit.
I have used the concepts in Atomic Habits to create the habit of waking up between 3:30-4am every morning (I have since stopped this habit, see this post for why), I have used it to lose 10lbs, and I have used it to create a daily reading habit not only for myself but also for my daughter, and I'm currently using it to create the habit of going to the gym at least 3 times a week.
The reason why Atomic Habits is such an effective book for habit change is because the concepts shared in the book are simple to understand but also simple to implement.
But don't be fooled by the word simple.
Often it's the small simple things done daily which compound over time to create long-lasting remarkable results.
Simple, is powerful!
Key Idea #1: Systems VS Goals Thinking
Goal setting has been a big part of my life since the past 7 years, and it's something I do regularly. In fact goal setting has become such a huge part of my life that it's almost subconscious and second nature to me now.
However, after reading Atomic Habits, my perspective on goal setting has completely changed. I still set goals however I now take a few further steps to make sure that the goals I'm setting are actually goals that I can achieve.
After all that is the whole purpose of a goal right?
Traditionally when setting goals, I would sit down and write out a list of the goals I would like to achieve that year, quarter, month or week. These would then be my guiding posts for the rest of the year.
This approach is great if you're just starting out with goal setting and have never set any goals in the past. I would highly recommend that you set some goals as opposed to zero goals.
However with this method you quickly realise that it is not a guarantee of success.
James shares a few brilliant reasons why setting goals that aren't backed up by a system can be a problem:
1. Winners And Losers Have The Same Goals
Look at any sport, whether it's a cricket or a boxing every participant has the same goal. To win. None of them goes in there to lose. However there will be a loser and a winner at the end.
Again if we look at high achievers and low achievers, both will have the same goal yet only some people will achieve more and others will remain the same or not achieve anything at all, Why?
This shows then that it cannot be the goals that differentiates them from one another, something else must be at play.
The high achievers set goals to set a direction but they then also implement a system to achieve that goal.
2. It's Only A Momentary Change
Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it. If you suddenly get a burst of motivation to clean it then you'll have a clean room i.e. the end result you wanted.
However if you still maintain your unorganised, messy habits then your room will become dirty again very quickly and you'll have to rely on another burst of motivation to get it cleaned.
You're left chasing the result again because you didn't change the system behind it. You treated the symptoms without addressing the cause.
What you need to do is change the system so that it can create different results.
For this example, you would address the messy and unorganised behaviour and create multiple systems which would make you more organised.
This could include putting items back where you got them from after you've used them. Or cleaning up after yourself as soon as the mess is made, or even folding your clothes as soon as you change them.
Small systems like this can lead to long term desirable results.
3. It Restrict Your Happiness
James says in the the book that "the problem with a goal-first mentality is that you're continually putting happiness off until the next milestone". So you're continuously on a treadmill where you never actually reach happiness because you keep putting it off to some future event.
It's more meaningful to enjoy the process rather than the end product, because this allows you to be happy while striving to achieve your goal as opposed to just the end result which may or may not happen the way you anticipated.
Systems allow you to do this, because you can be satisfied anytime you are following the system and making incremental improvements.
4. Goals Are At Adds With Long Term Progress
What happens when you have achieved a goal?
Generally when we achieve a goal we become slack and tend to lose motivation. The reason is because we no longer have the pull of the goal because we have already accomplished it.
This is why you sometimes see athletes who train for so long up to and until their game only to revert to their bad habits once they have won the game. There is nothing left to motivate them.
This hinders long term progress because you fall into a yo-yo pattern of being motivated, achieving the goal, then cannibalising your efforts by becoming slack again, setting a new goal and repeating the cycle all over again.
I have done this myself in the past with my weight loss efforts where I would set a random goal for weight loss, then upon achieving it I would fall back into the bad eating habits and gain it all back again.
Systems allow us to fall in love with the process so that we can make continuous improvements throughout our lives instead of falling into this repeating cycle, this way the result is much more sustainable and long term.
'Systems' Are The Key
Setting a random goal will not get you anywhere, unless you are naturally someone who says they will do something and then does it.
Most of us are not born with that sort of resolve and discipline, so we have to optimise our goal setting to make sure that our default result would be to achieve the goal.
The way we can do this is by outlining the goals we want to achieve and then optimising those goals by setting up a system that will lead to the achievement of those goals.
But what is the difference between goals and systems?
In Atomic Habits James states that...
"Goals are the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results...If you want better results, then forget about setting goals, focus on your system instead. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress"
When we setup a system for the daily, weekly and monthly tasks that we need to do to achieve that goal, all we have to concentrate on is doing that task, the result will then take care of itself.
These small tasks then compound over time and move us closer to achieving our end goal. In essence making us a goal achiever by default.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear describes this compounding effect as the aggregation of marginal gains.
Key Idea #2: The Power of Environment Design
Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour and many of the choices we make on a daily basis are the result of poor environmental design as opposed to choice.
As humans we always take the more convenient, obvious, or default action.
This is why designing our environment so that we take the default action that moves us towards our goals as opposed to away from them is imperative.
Have you ever noticed that when you go to the supermarket generally the expensive branded products are usually on eye level, however the own brand or cheaper products are on the lower or upper (harder to reach) levels.
The supermarkets are using environment design to their advantage.
They make more profit from these higher priced branded goods so they place them in easy to reach, prominent locations so that you (the consumer) are more likely to pick one up by default as opposed to the cheaper products.
Another great example of environment design is when these same supermarkets place the milk, bread, eggs and other perishables towards the back of the store.
The reason they do this is because supermarkets know that these products require regular topping up so when a customer comes to buy these perishables the supermarket doesn't want them to buy only those, they want them to pass many other products and entice them to buy more during this particular visit.
It's an easy way for supermarkets to increase your basket value and make the most of these frequent 'pop in's' you make to get some milk!
I have used the power of environmental design in my personal life too.
Last year I decided I wanted to lose 10lbs, however as a parent I had to deal with the issue of not being tempted by my daughters treats.
So to make my weight-loss easier and more enjoyable rather than a constant battle I used environment design to my advantage:
I made sure to keep any goodies in a drawer that was harder to reach or I tried to not bring any into the house at all (this was quite easy actually as my daughter isn't allowed much sweets treats and candies anyway so she doesn't miss them much).
Since then I also now put fruit and veg on display instead of the crisper drawer in the fridge so it's much more visible and gets eaten in the form of smoothies or juice.
We also have our daily supplements on the dining table to make sure we remember to take them in the morning straight after breakfast.
To drink more water I have placed water carafes in every room so that I can drink water wherever I am in the house, I have one next to my bed so I can have a drink 1st thing in the morning.
I have designed my environment in such a way that the default is to be as healthy as possible (I'm not perfect though so I do slip up now and again!).
In addition to these the above there are countless other tiny things I have done In my home which allow me to be more productive as a result of environment design.
The key here is to look at the environment you can control and seek out small changes you can make that will allow you to do the positive habit you are trying to implement by default, or make the negative habit you are trying to get rid of more difficult.
Key Idea #3: The 4 Steps To Make Or Break Any Habit
So the rest of the Atomic Habits book is dedicated to the core framework which James refers to as the 4 Laws of Behaviour Change.
This framework makes habit change a process that anyone can go through quite easily and truly change their habits for the better.
The 4 Step Behaviour Change Framework shows us that to create a good habit we need to:
- Make it obvious
- Make it attractive
- Make it easy
- Make it satisfying
This framework can then also be reversed to break a bad habit, so to break a bad habit we must:
- Make it invisible
- Make it unattractive
- Make it difficult
- Make it unsatisfying
Any time you are looking to change a habit why not put it through this filter, you will find that many habits can be created easily just by tweaking this behaviour framework to your advantage.
So hopefully you can see how powerful this framework can be to allow you to create good habits and break bad ones easily.