Tiny Changes Can Make a BIG Difference
Since I read a lot of books for personal enjoyment and for my business, I decided to do a book review of Atomic Habits by James Clear. It has so many great tips on how to create meaningful habits for your business and personal life. The following are my (many) key takeaways from the book.
1. “The most powerful form of motivation in sticking with a habit will be making a habit part of your identity.” You will need to see yourself in a new way for the habit to become your reality. One example of this is saying you are a healthy person so that you can implement healthy eating and exercise changes in your life. Another could be by saying you are “good with money” so you can make healthier financial decisions. As you repeat the small changes in your life, you will build the habits you want to use to create your new identity.
2. “Habits are the brain’s way of freeing up the need for effort.” If you are able to build consistency in your habits, this can free up time and energy for other things in your life. For example, having a routine for studying that you practice each day while taking a class will help you be successful and less stressed about studying. If you have good habits in paying your bills on time, this frees up money that you could have otherwise paid in late fees, fines and interest to spend on thing that you actually enjoy doing.
3. “If a habit requires you to do more than you’re comfortable doing, you won’t do it.” I’m not a runner, so if I decided I was going to run a marathon that required running every week to build up to the marathon, I would never stick with it. If you enjoy going out to eat but decided to cut that out entirely to save money, you likely would not stick with it. If someone is told they need to cut out sugar entirely to be healthy, it would be nearly impossible for most people to do.
4. “Habit Stacking is a good way to build additional good habits”. This might look like adding a few stretching exercises before and after your daily walking routine. If you currently try to add a certain amount to your savings account each month, you could decide to also add something to your investment account each month at the same time. You could also decide that you will give away (or sell) something each time you bring a new item into the home. We try to do this with clothing at our house. If you buy a new shirt, it’s a good time to donate one that you aren’t going to wear anymore.
5. “Environment often matters more than motivation.” People stop at Starbucks more than other coffee shops because they prominently placed and easy to get to. People make impulse buys at grocery stores because the product placement right at the end of the aisles and in the checkout lines make it easy. If we want to make forming a new habit easier, you will need to take different actions than you normally do. If you want to start an exercise routine, laying out your clothes the night before or making a date with a friend to hike will make it easier to commit. If you are trying to limit your distractions of watching Netflix or doing other things when you are supposed to be working from home, move your workspace into a quiet room without a television.
6. “Disciplined people are those who don’t put themselves in situations that strain their willpower.” For example, if you are an alcoholic who chooses not to drink you will be more successful in your recovery by staying away from bars and other tempting situations. If you are trying to eat healthier, you may clean out your pantry and avoid buying processed and sugary treats. If you are constantly distracted by your phone, putting it on “Do Not Disturb” or putting it in another room while you are trying to focus on work for a bit can be a helpful strategy.
7. “Bad habits are incredibly attractive to us as our brain’s pleasure centers light up when we do things like eat sugar, spend, use electronics and use social media.” We have to try to make the dopamine spike with the new habits to overcome the habits we are trying to replace. One way that Clear recommends to do this is by “Temptation Bundling”. This could look like stacking the habit of watching Netflix for an hour as a reward for going for an hour long walk and stretching for 15 minutes. Another example would be setting a timer to work for a few hours distraction-free before being able to check your social media or phone.
8. “As humans we tend to imitate those who are close to us and those we admire as a part of our instinct to survive.” Surrounding yourself with people who have the habits you would like to achieve will help support you in changing your own identity.
9. “All modern habits speak to some deep evolutionary motivation such as finding a partner and reproducing, satisfying hunger, reducing uncertainty or achieving prestige.” In building new habits, you need to figure out a new way to satisfy the same motivations. Changing your perspective one way to reprogram your brain where harder habits are concerned. This is where mindset shifts can reframe your thoughts like this, “I’m working hard to be good with my money so I can buy the things I really want and need” instead of “I’m bad with money”. Another one could be instead of saying, “Ugh, I need to work out more,” say something like “I’m so glad I am healthy enough to go on a walk today”.
10. “As you repeat a habit, your brain changes physically to become more efficient at processing that activity to become fully integrated into your daily routine.” The more you repeat a habit, the more likely it will be to remain a part of your life. For example, if you decide to put $100 a month into an account and repeat this over and over, it will just become automatic. This is why 401k plans are so popular in saving for retirement. Once you get into the habit it is harder to stop than to just keep doing it. Think of your morning coffee routine, it has been repeated over and over and would be hard to change to something different like waiting until lunchtime to have your coffee. Your body craves routine and will miss it if you have formed the habit over time.
11. “You want the habits you form consciously to be as easy to do as the habits you form unconsciously.” For example, if you are trying to eat healthier but are constantly going out for fast food this makes it harder. Making it easier could look like meal prepping healthy meals a few days ahead of time so that you aren’t tempted to go out instead. If you are trying to cut back on spending, but find that you fill up your free time with walking around in stores that you see beautiful things that you “need” to buy, this makes it harder to cut back. Making it easier could be walking around in a museum or in nature instead of walking around in stores OR leaving your cash and credit cards at home when going out.
12. “Making a conscious effort to make the better choice and keep making the better choice determines who our future self will be.” Taking baby steps by scaling down any habit you want to start to two minutes. If you want to start exercising more, start by exercising just two more minutes than you already do. If you want to eat healthier or spend less on dining out, then start by eating one less meal at a restaurant per week. You can build up from there to making more changes as you accomplish the first change. Small changes each day or each week can cause a HUGE difference by the end of one month, one quarter and one year!!!
13. “Finding small ways to automate good habits and to restrict bad habits will help your future-self make better choices.” This could be putting a task on your calendar to take an exercise break each day. It could be an app that you use to plan your spending and tell you when you are at your limit for dining out during a month. It could be an accountability partner to check in and make sure you are implementing the habits that you want to start.
14. “Humans are very simple creatures in forming habits in that we repeat actions that are rewarded and avoid those that are punished, but we want immediate gratification.” Finding small ways to reward yourself in the present for your new habits or for choosing not to do a bad habit will help you be more successful. An example of this could be opening a savings account labeled with something you want like a trip, a car or a pony. Every time you decide to make dinner at home instead of going out, you could put the money saved into the savings account. Another example could be each time you finish your new exercise routine you give yourself points towards getting a new pair of fancy leggings. When our kids were small, they had a points chart for doing their tutoring sessions without argument. Once they saved up enough points, they got to choose prizes like a phone or a guinea pig.
15. “Habit tracking helps us to feel satisfaction with the habits we form and keeps us motivated.” If you are trying to do daily exercise, you can put an X on a calendar each day that you complete your new routine. Habit tracking keeps you honest about what you’ve done and helps us see the visual reminder, it’s addicting as we see our progress so we don’t want to break our streak, and it’s satisfying and becomes a reward. Using apps, calendar or other easy logs and record your results right away so you don’t forget is the key. If you slip up, just go right back to your intended habit and don’t focus on the slip-up.
16. “Choose habits to fit your preferences.” If you hate running but want to get fit, choose something that is more suitable for you like hiking, pickleball, chair yoga or cycling. If you want to eat healthier but hate cooking, choose a healthy meal-kit delivery service or buy pre-cut veggies and use easy to prepare meal ideas when buying groceries. If you have a harder time saving for big purchases because you overspend regularly, you may want to implement habits that remove money from your account before your paycheck goes in and “hide” it at another bank so you have less to spend and will likely adjust to that level of spending over time.
There are so many things that go into building new habits, but I hope you will take a few tips from this book when thinking about what new habit you would like to implement in your life. As someone who spends a lot of time on my computer and sitting, I am trying to implement more movement in my life. Doing a little bit more each day makes a big difference!
