Atomic Habits
If you’ve unsuccessfully tried incorporating new habits or breaking old habits, this book is for you. If you’ve successfully incorporated new habits or broken old habits, this book is for you too! Atomic Habits is going on the short list of books I recommend to everyone regardless of their reading preferences or lifestyle. Anyone can get something out of this book if they’re willing to put in the work, whether their goal is physical, financial, psychological, or any other category you could think of.
James Clear breaks down habit development (and habit breaking) into four easy laws; for habit development, make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. For breaking undesirable habits, simply inverse the laws: make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, make it unsatisfying. Each law has its own section in which Clear breaks down the law into small, easy-to-understand chunks, provides examples of people who have successfully used the law to develop a habit, and advice for overcoming common excuses.
He talks about the importance of developing a good system, rather than a good goal. Though the goals are important, the system we use to achieve them is what determines whether we fail or succeed. He also emphasizes that once goals are reached it’s not uncommon for people to return to their previous behavior rather than striving to further improve their system or set a more advanced goal.
I could hear the excuses play out in my head as I was reading, excuses I’ve made so many times when I was tired or feeling particularly lazy, but it was like Clear was in my head. As soon as the excuses started popping up, I came to a part in the book discussing these same exact excuses and how to overcome them. Clear uses examples of real people who have utilized these laws to overcome their own excuses, making the book much more relatable. He uses professional sports teams as examples, but he also uses friends, office workers, artists, etc. There isn’t a lifestyle that these steps won’t be able to fit into because they’re so versatile.
Many of the resources Clear mentions are easily accessible and printable, allowing readers to develop their own habit trackers and systems. He recommends other reading materials that helped him develop Atomic Habits, as well books that correspond with certain steps or delve deeper into different types of systems people have developed.
I don’t currently have a list of annual readings because there are so few books I reread, and the ones I do reread aren’t read annually. However, I’m starting a list this year and Atomic Habits is at the top. There were so many great lessons and steps I could put into practice immediately, but I can see how that motivation could slip or I would overlook certain steps I no longer deem necessary after a year. Hopefully that will keep the information and motivation fresh in my head as I start each new year.
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