Atomic Habits by James Clear!

 

Image Source: www.amazon.com

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

“Conquer your bad habits, or they will conquer you.” Lord Buddha

We are constantly thinking why we did not succeed or why we are not getting what we ought to or what is it that is stopping us to become the best version of ourselves and et cetera. Isn’t it the quest of human beings to become the ultimate best version of ourselves rather than following the trends in the market? The answer is obvious YES. We find few pointers here and there, we find few ways to better do our jobs, we find few lines to soothe ourselves, and if we try harder we can find few of the means that we’ve been thinking as ends all our lives. Then, what are those ends that we must begin to unearth and take up in our lives: habits – they are what we are trying to comprehend here and try to implement in our lives.

Habits are simple, and yet complex enough to boggle our brain. Most of the times, we are on autopilot while executing our day to day tasks; and some of these habits are empowering to us and some of them are destroying our productivity. James Clear has succinctly put up his ideas, researches, and personal experiences in a beautiful way to aid all of us in understanding what habits are, how they form, how they stick with us, and how we can’t put up with habits that are best for us.

The book has been written in a fashion that most of the non – fiction books are written: it contains real live examples, shows the data analysis of various researches, and it contains the techniques to instill or remove any habits in our lives. At the end of the book, Clear has been provocative enough to push ourselves in order to apply the learning of the book and make our lives truly enriching like the way we deserve.

Of course, skepticism is necessary while learning new things. However, I urge the readers not to apply skepticism while reading the book; it is always better to questions things after reading them i.e. while contemplating ideas over our head. Clear has refined the domain of habit and compiled all of them here in this book; clearly there is no need to study this book, if we think and feel that we are already doing great in our lives and nothing great could ever happen to us. However, if we want to improve our lives for the better of humanity; it is the book to start with. Because, it deals with the fundamentals of our destiny or character or success or failure or whatever name we call it i.e. HABITS.

……habits are the compound interest of self-improvement….

…..success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations……

…..“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”……….

Image Source: Atomic Habits by James Clear

…..the purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game…..

….the more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it…..

……the process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself…..

…..building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future….

…..broadly speaking, the format for creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.”…

…….if you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment……

…..“Disciplined” people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and selfcontrol. In other words, they spend less time in tempting situations……

……surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together…..

……a craving is the sense that something is missing……..

……we are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action…..

…….conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Maybe if you really wanted it, you’d actually do it. But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient…….

….trying to pump up your motivation to stick with a hard habit is like trying to force water through a bent hose……..

……..business is a never-ending quest to deliver the same result in an easier fashion……

…..what you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path…..

……what is rewarded is repeated, what is punished is avoided……

…….put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future….

……the breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast……

……when the consequences are severe, people learn quickly…..

……….in short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity…….

…..the human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty…….

……..humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right………

……the greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom…….

At one point or another, we all face the impediment over the growth in our lives; that place must be acutely understood, and we must keep on going till we achieve our desire. The book doesn’t contain the things that we don’t already know; rather, it contains the things that we are doing on our day to day lives and yet we are not aware about it. It shows how simple habits formation is or how simple a habit breaking process is. It is about the reflection on ourselves, and the actions we take on day to day basis.

It is our lives purpose to become better person, better human, and better in every facet of our lives. While doing so, it is not embarrassing to take any help we can: since, our lives are not that long enough to make mistakes and learn from it. The mistakes we are going to make have already been made by people before us; and it is common sense to learn from their mistakes. Our aim is to make mistakes that have not been made before i.e. make new mistakes: only then overall humanity will take on new heights. Let’s make mistakes; but let’s make new mistakes and learn from them, improve ourselves, and make another one, and so on.

Rating: 4.8/5