Books Worth Reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” — James Clear

Are you struggling to accomplish your goals? What about establishing daily routines? Author and habit expert James Clear has the solution for you in his best-selling book Atomic Habits.

First off, if you asked Clear how to achieve your goals, he’d tell you to forget about them. No, really! This sounds strange at first. You might even ask, “How do I achieve anything without goals?!?!” Well, here’s the thing about goals… you won’t achieve them without the right systems in place. His idea is this:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Your goal is your desired outcome. Your system is the collection of daily habits that will get you there.

… spend less time focusing on outcomes and more time focusing on the habits that precede the results.”

The fundamental problem with obsessing over goals is that a goal only provides momentary change. This is counterintuitive to lasting improvement. If you look at a poor test result, bad sales numbers, or a losing streak in sports, you would think that results need to be changed. Results are not the problem, actual change needs to be in the systems that cause poor results. Clear put it this way, “fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.”

To be fair, goals are not useless. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This is true. However, without the proper systems in place, no meaningful progress can advance your goal.

The good news for anyone struggling to establish good habits or achieve a goal is that the problem is not you, it’s your system. The solution to this is in the book's title, Atomic Habits. Clear defines an atomic habit in this way, “… an atomic habit refers to a tiny change, a marginal gain, a 1 percent improvement. But atomic habits are not just any old habits, however small. They are little habits that are part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.”

When you see Tom Brady win yet another Super Bowl or your high school buddy on Facebook flaunt, his new ripped muscles, you only see the results. These are defining moments in people’s lives. I’m sure you would love to achieve similar success. There is always more happening behind the scenes. Hours upon hours of practice. Meticulous monitoring of calories and macronutrients. Arduous training in the gym. Early mornings. Late nights. You get it. These daily activities create tiny gains. You don’t see muscles grow immediately after lifting weights. You're not rewarded with a championship ring immediately after running through plays at practice. Each of these activities or habits compounds overtime. A daily habit might help you improve 1% each day, but overtime 1% daily gains really add up.

Clear reminds us of the impact 1% gains can have, “Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.”

Legendary entrepreneur Jim Rohn presents this same principle in this way: “Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”

How do we shoot for these 1% gains in your own life? Let’s say you have had a burning desire to run a marathon. This is a pretty ambitious goal. It might even seem unachievable if you haven’t already established a running routine. First, realize that the goal isn’t to run a marathon, it’s becoming a runner. Clear states "you need to establish who you want to be, then prove it to yourself with small wins."

It’s easier to run a marathon if you are already a runner. Now break down your goal of becoming a runner into manageable steps. What daily habits do you need to become a runner? The first step wouldn’t be to run a mile every day. You’d probably give up pretty quick. The first step would be to put on your running shoes. That’s it. Clear puts it this way, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” Once you have standardized the basic components of your new daily habit, then you can improve on it.

“It is better to make small progress every day than to do as much as humanly possible in one day. Do things you can sustain.” — James Clear

Once you master the art of showing up (or in this case just putting on your running shoes), then you can expand on it. Go for a run would now become, run for two minutes. Once you’ve consistently been running daily for two minutes and you feel the urge to go longer and farther — do it! Run for five minutes, ten minutes, one mile, five miles, then on to 26.2 miles (a marathon). Go for slow growth rather than rushed outcomes.

You’ll be more willing to stick to a daily habit if you follow the 4 Laws of Behavior Change as outlined by Clear. “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.”

No matter what goal you are pursuing, don’t focus so much on the outcome. Focus on the system you need in order to make progress.

“If you genuinely care about the goal, you’ll focus on the system.” — James Clear

There is so much more I could write about that I have learned from Atomic Habits, but I’ll leave those gems for you to discover. James Clear’s incredible book is 253 pages of life-changing goodness. If you want to see how much you can achieve this year, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Atomic Habits. You won’t regret it.

5-Minute Challenge: Write a goal or habit you’ve been struggling with. What is something that takes less than two minutes that you can start today?

Here are some examples from James Clear:

You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:

• “Read before bed each night,” becomes “Read one page.”
• “Do thirty minutes of yoga,” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
• “Study for class,” becomes “Open my notes.”
• “Fold the laundry,” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
• “Run three miles,” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”

You can get your copy of Atomic Habits here.

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