Title: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Author: James Clear
Page Count: 319
Published: October 18, 2018
Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Personal
Development, Productivity
"No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results."
- Goodreads
According to Forbes, nearly 80% of Americans admit to abandoning their New Year's Resolutions by February. Well, it's February... Are you still part of the 20% committed to their resolutions? If not, don't despair! In this post, I will be summarizing James Clear's Atomic Habits, which is filled with valuable insights and strategies on habit formation and retention. Since this is a fitness blog, I am going to be applying some of the concepts from the book to show how you can accomplish your big goals this year in training, nutrition, and wellness.
Before we get into the chapter summaries, I want to say that I have read this book multiple times and there's a reason that I chose this book to be the first KAHE Performance book review (other than it being February and this book being about habits/resolutions). I REALLY believe that this book has the power to change lives, I know because it changed mine. After reading this book for the first time, I sat down with the material and applied it to my own life. As you'll see in the content ahead, I took ideas from Atomic Habits such as 1% improvement day over day, tying your habits to your identity and setting up your environment for success and integrated them into my life to develop better habits. Needless to say, the tactics I learned in habit formation from this book have shaped the person I am today: they've helped me run my first marathon, complete my first IRONMAN, heck they've even helped me start flossing my teeth more than twice a year (the two days before seeing the dentist lol).
For each chapter, I have compiled a list of my favorite quotes that I believe are representative of the chapter itself. After the quotes, I provide commentary on how I use the topics presented in the chapter in my daily life. I hope that you find as much value from this book as I did. Enjoy this book summary and if the topics in here interest you, I highly suggest going out and buying the book for yourself. You won't regret it.
The Fundamentals: Why Tiny Changes Make A Big Difference
Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits
"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent." (16)
"Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time you enemy." (18)
"Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change... Similarly, habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance." (20)
"Mastery requires patience." (21)
"Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results." (23)
"Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress." (24)
Problems with Goals:
#1: Winners and losers have the same goals
#2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
#3: Goals restrict your happiness
#4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." (27)
When I look back on the past five years of my life, there have been some big changes. It has been over three years since I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. It's been over two years since the beginning of COVID-19, approximately the amount of time that I have spent getting into fitness and endurance sports. It is crazy to think about all that I have accomplished in two years, but it hasn't always looked like that. When I first began running, I would be hand over knee, heaving at the side of the road after a 3 mile run. Now, when I go out on runs, I run anywhere between 6 - 12 miles on a daily basis. The consistency of working out has paid dividends in my life throughout those two years. By practicing the good habits of running, stretching, eating a well-balanced diet, my performance has been able to improve.
In this chapter, James Clear presents the difference between goals and systems. I think that this best applies to my Sub-3 Hour Marathon. In the beginning, I set a goal to run a Sub-3 Hour Marathon at the Mountains to Beach Marathon to qualify for Boston. Setting this goal was great for setting a direction to "run" towards - haha, but in order to accomplish the goal, I had to think about the systems to get me there. These systems included a training plan, a nutrition guide, rest/recovery methods, etc. By focusing during training on the systems, I put myself in the best position to run Sub-3. Sure, I thought about my goal every day, but I didn't just sit around thinking about my goal. I thought and executed on the systems needed to accomplish the goal on a daily basis.
Chapter 2: How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)
Three layers of behavior change:
1) Outcomes: Concerned with changing your results
2) Process: Concerned with changing your habits and systems
3) Identity: Concerned with changing your beliefs
"You may start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you'll stick with one is that it becomes a part of your identity." (34)
"Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity." (36)
"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become" (38)
"You have the power to change your beliefs about yourself. Your identity is not set in stone. You have a choice in every moment. You can chose the identity you want to reinforce today with the habits your chose today... Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. They are the channel through which you develop your deepest beliefs about yourself." (41)
Most people focus on the outcome they wish to achieve when pursuing a goal. Whether it be running a Sub-3 hour marathon, losing 20 pounds, or making the club soccer team, they are concerned with the result: did they accomplish what they set out to do? Although goals are powerful and you want to see that these goals come to fruition, the best way to ensure they happen is by changing the mindset that you have around yourself - changing your identity. In my case, I was not someone who was trying to run a Sub-3, my identity was to become the type of person dedicated to health and performance. The type of person who was resilient in the face of hardships and unwavering when it came to hurdles. By REALLY becoming this person, I was able to expand my identity and execute the habits needed to accomplish my goal. I think it's important to note a quote from the chapter: "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become." So when you make the choice to put on your running shoes rather than watching another Netflix episode, you're casting your vote towards your identity as a runner. Make multiple of these decisions throughout the week and see how they compound, see how they solidify your new identity.
Chapter 3: How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps
"Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks." (46)
The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response , and reward." (47)
"Whenever you want to change a behavior , you can simply ask yourself: (1) How can I make it obvious? (2) How can I make it attractive? (3) How can I make it easy? (4) How can I make it satisfying?" (54)
It can be pretty difficult to begin a habit. There's just so much you don't know. And the more you begin to know, the more your realize that you didn't know in the first place! With weight lifting for example, it can be pretty intimidating to go into a gym. Not only can you not lift very much when you first start out, but odds are, you also don't know many lifts or the proper technique. It can leave you feeling shy in the gym or even cause you to not go in the first place. These barriers are intimidating to start, but once you learn the lifts and begin to lift more and more weight, you gain confidence. And this confidence propels you to new levels of performance. So, go out there, start you habit, repeat it and before long, it will become automatic for you to do and you'll just be getting better and better. But before you begin, use the information in the next few chapter summaries to make forming your new habits easy and effortless (or at least, easier and less effort than before).
The First Law: Make It Obvious
Chapter 4: The Man Who Didn't Look Right
"As the psychologist Carl Jung said, 'Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.'" (62)
"The Habits Scorecard is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behavior" (67)
"As you create your Habits Scorecard, there is no need to change anything at first. The goal is to simply notice what is going on. Observe your thoughts and actions without judgement or internal criticism" (65-66)
Before you can start to change a habit, you must first be aware of the habits you already have. In this chapter, James Clear describes the two processes of "Pointing-and-Calling" and "The Habit Scorecard" to help bring awareness to your current habits. Pointing-and-Calling is when you acknowledge verbally that something is happening. For example, if I am trying to eat healthier and I run to the kitchen to eat three Oreo cookies, I would stop and say out loud "I am making the decision to eat three Oreo cookies. They are not the most nutritious food for my health and I am going to do it anyways." The Habit Scorecard is where you make a list of all the habits you perform throughout the day, from waking up, to checking your phone, to making coffee, to brushing your teeth, etc. Then, you assign a ranking to each habit (positive, negative, neutral). By doing both of these processes, you can raise awareness to your current habits and decide which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to change.
Chapter 5: The Best Way to Start a New Habit
"People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through." (70-71)
"When your dreams are vague, it's easy to rationalize little exceptions all day long and never get around to the specific things you need to do to succeed" (72)
In this chapter, Clear presents two new ideas to the reader to help in their habit creation strategy: the implementation intention formula and habit stacking. Too often, people will go throughout their lives saying "I will read more this year" and then fail to execute on their desired outcome. The implementation intention formula is a way for people to assign cues to their desired habit, making it more likely that they will follow through. The implementation formula reads as follows: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]. Habit stacking is using habits you already have to pair with new desired habits. The habit stacking formula is: After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]. By using a combination of the implementation formula and habit stacking, you can make new habits by integrating them into your current lifestyle. For example, "After I brush my teeth, I will put on my running shoes." Or, "I will read for thirty minutes at 9:00 PM in my bed."
Chapter 6: Motivation Is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
"Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior." (82)
"By sprinkling triggers throughout your surrounds, you increase the odds that you'll think about your habit throughout the day. Make sure the best choice is the most obvious one. Making a better decision is easy and natural when the cues for good habits are right in front of you." (86)
"A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form." (90)
In my personal opinion, this is one of the most important chapters in the book and can have the greatest impact on the success of your desired habits. The environment that you interact with on a daily basis greatly impacts your ability to follow your habits. So, design your environment in ways that enable you to see success in your habits. In terms of running or going to the gym, I think it is extremely helpful to make it easier on yourself by setting your clothes and gear out on the table the night before, so it takes any extra hassle out of the equation that might have been a barrier to you working out.
Chapter 7: The Secret to Self-Control
"So, yes, perseverance, grit, and will-power are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment." (93)
"Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long term one." (95)
The inverse of environmental design towards good habits is designing your environment to steer clear of bad habits. Motivation and self control are finite resources and who wants to fight their urges every hour of every day? When you see some people avoiding the negative habits you are looking to get rid of, it's not because they are better than you or have more self-control, it's because they have designed their environment to not put them in comprising conditions. For example, if you are trying not to eat as much junk food, it is easier to not have junk food in the house by simply not buying cookies and potato chips at the store than it is to resist the urge to grab a cookie whenever you pass the the kitchen. Instead, you could buy more fruits and vegetables and chop them up ahead of time and have them waiting in your fridge or out on the counter. This will make it more tempting to eat the healthy items. Environmental design will have a huge impact on your ability to stick with your desired habits.
The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive
Chapter 8: How to Make A Habit Irresistible
"If you want to increase the odds that a behavior will occur, then you need to make it attractive." (104)
"Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit forming - taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media - is associated with higher levels of dopamine." (106)
"It is the anticipation of a reward - not the fulfillment of it - that gets us to take action." (106)
"We need to make our habits attractive because it is the expectation of a rewarding experience that motivates us to act in the first place." (108)
"Temptation bundling is one way to create a heightened version of any habit by connecting it with something you already want." (111)
In this chapter, Clear describes how are habits are formed based on what seems to be the most attractive to our dopamine-driven brains. He asserts that "It is the anticipation of a reward - not the fulfillment of it - that gets us to take action. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike." If we can find ways to anticipate our desired habit, it is more likely that we will follow through. So, Clear proposes that to make a habit stick, use temptation bundling, pairing an action you want to do with an action you need to do. The temptation bunding formula is "After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. After [HABIT I NEED, I will [HABIT I WANT]." In terms of our working out example, this could look like "After I have my morning coffee, I will go to the gym. After I go to the gym, I will scroll on my phone for 15 minutes." If you enjoy scrolling on your phone (habit you want), by giving your brain anticipation of scrolling, it will make going to the gym (habit you need) more attractive and easier to do.
Chapter 9: The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits
"One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior." (117)
"It's friendship and community that embed a new identity and help behaviors last over the long run." (118)
"When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive. When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive." (121)
"We try to copy the behavior of successful people because we desire success ourselves. Many of our daily habits are imitations of people we admire" (121)
I feel like I am saying this a lot, but this is one of the most important chapters of the book, at least in my experience. When trying to make a habit that you are going to follow through and have it become a part of your identity, it is extremely helpful if this habit and the actions that go along with it, is something that the people closest to you already do. For example, if you are trying to get into running, it is helpful to be around other runners. I suggest joining a running club to help encourage you to get out and run more often (and also for the tips that you can learn from others and the friendships that you can make). If you are in a culture that promotes fitness, nutrition and wellbeing through their behavior, it will be infinitely easier for these traits to become a part of your identity as well. I have once read that you are a culmination of the five people you hangout with most. This chapter embodies that statistic. On the flip side, if the changes that you are trying to make are not found attractive by your group, then it is far less likely that you will make those changes for fear of being alienated from the group. In summary, associate yourself with people who embody that habits you want and disassociated yourself with those who embody habits you don't want.
Chapter 10: How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
"A craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive." (127)
"Some of our underlying motives include: conserve energy, obtain food and water, find love and reproduce, connect and bond with others, win social acceptance and approval, reduce uncertainty, achieve status and prestige" (127)
"Desire is the difference between where you are now and where you want to be in the future." (129-130)
"You can make hard habits more attractive if you learn to associate them with a positive experience." (130)
"Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habits seem more attractive." (131)
When trying to avoid bad habits, one of the best tactics can be to make them unattractive. We are motivated by our innate desires: to obtain food, to bond, etc. By using the knowledge of what our underlying motives are behind our cravings (example: knowing that we are hungry when we are craving a sugary food), we can manipulate our habits towards ones that work better for us. The next time you are wanting junk food, think about the underlying motive behind your desire. By being aware, you can manipulate your response to fit the outcome you want (eating a healthy meal instead). In addition, you can make the bad habit seem really unattractive by mentally shifting yourself to have negative feelings towards that habit. In addition, by framing positive habits with positive feelings, it will be more attractive. For example, by framing a workout by thinking "I get to workout" instead of "I have to workout." Lastly, it can help to have a motivation ritual to get you into a positive mindset for your desired habit. When you head to the gym, play some of your favorite pump up songs as you drive to create a experience surrounding the experience, making you want to do it again.
The 3rd Law: Make It Easy
Chapter 11: Walk Slowly, but Never Backward
Action vs. Being in Motion - "When you're in motion, you're planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don't produce a result. Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver and outcome." (142)
"Motion makes you feel like you're getting things done. But really, you're just in preparation to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something." (143)
"Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition." (143)
"The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it." (147)
All too often we go through life thinking that we are taking action on our habits, when in reality we are going through the motions, planning / strategizing / procrastinating. I've found that one of the best ways to combat this false reality of action is by taking a big action step. A big action step could be signing up for the marathon you are wanting to run, forcing you to train and get ready for the race by investing your money in the sign up. Or you can go one step further and post on social media and/or tell your friends about your goal, creating pressure to actually work towards said goal. Once you have committed to your habit and have started taking action rather than being in motion, your habits will begin to become automatic. Through repetitions, not time, habits become automatic. By going for a run every day of the week, the habit of running will be more ingrained than if you spent the same amount of time doing one big run once per month.
Chapter 12: The Law of Least Effort
"The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones." (155)
"Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do." (158)
Humans will naturally gravitate towards behaviors that involve the least amount of work. Imagine: in the past we had to go to the movie store to rent a DVD, now we have movies and television shows on demand through streaming services like Netflix. The same goes for our habits. If we can make it as easy as possible to execute our desired habits, and inversely as hard as possible to execute our undesired habits, then we will see greater levels of success in keeping / getting rid of them. Again, the topic of environmental design comes to play. If we leave our workout apparel on the table, ready for use, there is a better chance we will workout because it involved less work. If we leave the cookies in a really hard to grab shelf that is out of sight, there is a less likelihood we will reach for them next time we feel hungry.
Chapter 13: How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule
"The difference between a good day and a bad day is often a few productive and healthy choices made at decisive moments." (161)
"Each day is made up of many moments, but it is really a few habitual choices that determine the path you take. These little choices stack up, each one setting the trajectory for how you spend the next chunk of time." (162)
"The Two-Minute Rule states, 'When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.'" (162)
"The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things." (164)
All moments in a day are not created equal. There are decisive moments in each day that present you an opportunity to accomplish your goals or to not accomplish them. For example, when you get off work and go home, you could either stay at home and watch television, or you can put on your gym clothes and get in a workout. The decision you make at that moment have a huge impact on your day. These are the moments that are what James Clear refers to earlier as the actions (votes) that make your identity. In this chapter, Clear also details how many people will begin a new habit and try to do too much at once. For example, wanting to begin running and trying to run 10 miles every day, but only ending up running one day and being too tired to do it for the rest of the week. It is much more productive to run 2 miles every day of the week. So, when beginning a new habit, start out by doing less than what you think you can do so it is more enjoyable. In addition, ritualize your habit by creating a process surrounding the habit. For example, before you workout if you listen to a certain song, it can get you in the mood to have a stellar workout.
Chapter 14: How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible
"A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. It is a way to lock in future behavior, bind you to good habits, and restrict you from bad ones." (170)
"Commitment devices are useful because they enable you to take advantage of good intentions before you can fall victim to temptation" (170)
"The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to automate your habits." (176)
"Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behavior." (176)
One of the ways to make a habit easy is to make it automatic. By using commitment devices, you can lock in good behavior when you are at a point where you are not in temptation. For example, if you are trying to develop a habit of walking 10,000 steps a day, you can lock in this behavior by taking the one time action of buying a dog. By buying a dog, you are ensuring that you will make progress towards walking 10,000 steps a day because you will have to take the dog on a daily walk. Another example could be, if you want to develop a habit of exercising, or possibly running a 5K, you can hire a personal trainer. Then, you will have automatic training sessions logged into your calendar and will be committed to attending those sessions since you will already have paid for them, they will be scheduled and you will have pressure from the trainer to workout.
The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying
Chapter 15: The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
"The first three laws of behavior change - make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy - increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of behavior change - make it satisfying - increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time." (186)
"As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals." (189)
"Reinforcement ties your habit to an immediate reward, which makes it satisfying when you finish." (191)
"The more a habit becomes a part of your life, the less you need outside encouragement to follow through. Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit." (192)
Have you ever wondered why you are unable to follow a diet or workout plan even though you know that it will be good for you? It's in this chapter where we find the answer to that question: evolution. We evolved to seek immediate gratification, for example, during the Ice Age we were rewarded for a successful hunt with nourishment in the form of meat. But today, in an era where everything we could want is at our fingertips, we must learn to seek forms of gratification that are delayed. For example, when you exercise, the benefits are delayed: you won't notice yourself looking better immediately, it might take months. Meanwhile, by eating a tasty treat, it is immediate gratification because you feel rewarded by the taste. So, how do you learn to stick with habits that involve delay gratification? You can start by tying an immediate gratification to the habit through the use of habit stacking. For example, When I go to the gym, I will reward myself with a protein shake (the goal is for the reward to be something that gives you immediate gratification, but does not go against your overall goals).
Chapter 16: How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day
"A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit. The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine." (196)
"In summary, habit tracking (1) creates a visual cue that can remind you to act, (2) is inherently motivating because you see the progress you are making and don't want to lose it, and (3) feels satisfying whenever you record another successful instance of your habit. Furthermore, habit tracking provides visual proof that you are casting votes for the type of person you wish to become, which is a delightful form of immediate and intrinsic gratification." (198-199)
"Don't break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive." (204)
"Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible." (204)
"Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system." (203)
Making a habit tracker can be one of the most simple ways to make your habits more satisfying. By tracking to see if you are moving in the right direction, you reinforce the habit by seeing if it is working to help you towards your goals and gives you an immediate gratification for your work. If you are trying to become a runner, a simple way to make a habit tracker would be to get a calendar and mark an "X" for every day you run. If you miss a run, don't overly worry about it. Just make sure not to miss multiple days in a row, because this begins a negative habit cycle of you not running. One of the downsides of habit tracking is when you begin to track the wrong measures. For example, if you are concerned about your running pace and are tracking the speed of every run. If you end up running slower on a run, you can get down on yourself. But it could have just been because you got bad sleep, were recovering from a cold or had a big run the day before. You might be worried over nothing, especially if your goal was just to run every day. Another example might be if you are trying to be a healthier individual. If you are tracking this by the bathroom scale, you could become discouraged if you gain weight, but maybe this weight gain is due to an increase in muscle mass, which would be healthier. So, tracking your weight would be tracking the wrong measure in determining your overall health.
Chapter 17: How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything
"The more immediate the pain, the less likely the behavior. If you want to prevent bad habits and eliminate unhealthy behaviors, then adding an instant cost to the action is a great way to reduce their odds." (206)
"A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don't follow through. Then you find one or two people to act as your accountability partners and sign off on the contract with you." (208)
Accountability partner - "Knowing that someone is watching can be a powerful motivator." (210)
"We care about the opinions of those around us because it helps if others like us. This is precisely why getting an accountability partner or signing a habit contract can work so well." (210)
Going through something on your own is much more difficult than having someone on your team. By creating accountability through involving others in your goals (either through a habit contract or accountability contract), you are far more likely to stick with your habits. Joining a running team or CrossFit gym can be great ways to create community and develop a sense of accountability around your fitness. Or, by recruiting your spouse or a friend, you can let them know your goals and have them hold you accountable to finishing them. I use the Strava (fitness social media platform) community as an informal accountability partner. By knowing that my friends can see my workouts, it reinforces my desire to workout and post the workouts onto my Strava.
Advanced Tactics: How to Go from Being Merely Good to Being Truly Great
Chapter 18: The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don't)
"The key is to direct your effort toward areas that both excite you and match your natural skills, to align your ambition with your ability." (219)
"Habits need to be enjoyable if they are going to stick." (222)
Questions to help you in your search for habits / areas that will be most satisfying to you: "What feels like fun to me, but work to others? What makes me lose track of time? Where do I get greater returns than the average person? What comes naturally to me?" (224-225)
"Flow is the mental state you enter when you are so focused on the task at hand that the rest of the world fades away. This blend of happiness and peak performance is what athletes and performers experience when they are 'in the zone.' It is nearly impossible to experience a flow state and not find the task satisfying at least to some degree." (224)
This chapter is focused on taking your habits to the next level. Clear details the stories of Michael Phelps (Olympic swimmer) and Hicham El Guerrouj (Olympic runner). Although both athletes are Olympic caliber at their respective events, they have very different body types (Phelps being 6'4" and Guerrouj being 5'9"). Clear opens up with the stories of these athletes to show that genes do play a part in the potential of your abilities but they do not determine your destiny. Instead, Clear suggests using knowledge of yourself / your genes to show areas of opportunity for greatness. For example, if you are trying to find an area that you can be elite, you might not want to focus on basketball if you are 5'0". But, if you notice that you are a better chess player than others, this would be an area to focus your time towards expertise. I think in the end, especially at an amateur level, the focus needs to be on what makes you happiest. Once you figure out what you enjoy doing, whether that be swimming, running, dancing, biking, weightlifting, etc. focus your time and energy towards developing habits in those fields.
Chapter 19: The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work
"The Goldilocks Rule states that 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." (231)
"Improvement requires a delicate balance. You need to regularly search for challenges that push you to your edge while continuing to make enough progress to stay motivated." (233)
"The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom." (234)
"Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It's the ability to keep going when work isn't exciting that makes the difference." (237)
All too often, people will lose focus on their goals because they get bored and lose interest. This can often happen when things become too routine. For example, during a marathon training block, runners can lose interest and want to quit if they are solely doing long - slow runs every day. This is where adding some variety can help you stay engaged and keep interest. For example, this can be done by adding in more speedwork sessions or fartlek runs. One important thing to note, is that when pursuing your goals, especially when you are pursuing greatness, consistency is key. You must consistently be willing to put in work day in and day out towards your goals. If this is a goal to run a marathon, you can't give up because you lack the motivation to run on a certain day. You can't stop because you are bored. If you are really serious about your goal, you will continue because it is a part of your identity.
Chapter 20: The Downsides of Creating Good Habits
"Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a tiny element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to advance to the next frontier of your development." (240)
Annual Review: (1) What went well this year? (2) What didn't go so well this year (3) What did I learn? (246)
Integrity Report: (1) What are the core values that drive my life and work? (2) How am I living and working with integrity right now? (3) How can I set a higher standard in the future? (246)
"Habits deliver numerous benefits, but the downside is that they can lock us into our previous patterns of thinking and acting - even when the world is shifting around us. Everything is impermanent. Life is constantly changing, so you need to periodically check in to see if your old habits and beliefs are still serving you." (249)
Once you have developed a habit, you may begin to see your progress stagnate, even if you are putting in the same amount of effort as when you began the habit. For example, when you begin running, you may start at an 11 minute per mile pace. Over the course of running for a few months, you might see this pace drop to a 9 minute per mile pace. One would think that if they continued doing the same thing over the next few months, they would drop to a 7 minute per mile pace. But, progress is not linear. You must change and adapt your training to fit your new level of fitness and your new goals. By tracking your habits, you can see if your habits are still helping you work towards your goals, if not, you can implement new habits to get you to success. In addition, you might want to take time to reflect on a yearly / semi-yearly basis to see what you actually want out of your life. Maybe the habits you thought you wanted aren't what you want anymore. By conducting an annual review and an integrity report, you can structure your life and your habits into a lifestyle fitting for the person you determine you want to be.
Conclusion
"The secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements. It's remarkable what you can build if you just don't stop." (253)
Little Lessons From The Four Laws
Happiness is simply the absence of desire
"Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state. However, happiness is fleeting because a new desire always comes along. As Caed Budris says, 'Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.' Likewise, suffering is the space between craving a change in state and getting it." (259-260)
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