Blurb:
Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
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.
If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Learn how to: • make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); • overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; • design your environment to make success easier; • get back on track when you fall off course; …and much more.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
My Review:
We always want to build new habits. Learn a language, start eating healthy, start working out, maintain a journal, read a book, cook more, dance more, sing more, etc. Every new year starts with new hope, with a new resolution, but ends in the disappointment of not being able to stick with it.
Like most people in the world, I made a resolution this year. It’s to ‘walk more’. Covid has made me super lazy and a couch potato. So I decided to go out and walk for at least 30 minutes every day. But walking without a purpose seemed lame to me. I immediately knew what would help. I downloaded ‘Audible’ and started searching for an interesting title. I found ‘Atomic Habits’, and with my 1 free credit, I downloaded it at once.
I grabbed my earphones, put on my shoes and went out for a walk. It felt super comfortable and even enjoyable. It’s just been 22 days till now and it’s going pretty well.
‘Atomic Habits’ is a guide to help you break bad behaviours and adopt good ones. It seemed to be a perfect partner to motivate me to continue the good habit that I wanted to inculcate.
James Clear, in a very simple format, shares many tips and tricks to help you start as well as continue doing good habits and, on the other hand, drop bad ones. The repetition of some concepts and emphasis with the help of examples helped me catch on if I ever lost track.
The tips are simple and immediately implementable. Doesn’t matter what kind of habit it is, you can easily make it a part of your life if you implement even a few of the suggestions provided by the author.
It is the first non-fiction audiobook I have ever tried. And, I think I am going to stick with audiobooks for the entire non-fiction genre.
Many of the suggestions provided in the book, I had already been doing and many I learned as I listened to the audiobook.
Here are some awesome lessons that I have applied:
-
Stack 2 habits together—What you NEED to do and what you WANT to do: I needed to walk, and I wanted to read a book. Now, I am doing both of them together; thanks to audiobooks. It has become a sort of motivation for me to walk. If I walk, then only I get to listen to an audiobook.
-
Make a habit tracker: I had already been using one for the past 9-10 months. But, I got inconsistent with it recently, and now I am continuing it again.
-
1% improvement every day: When I started my morning walk 16 days ago, I could just do 2500 steps in 30 minutes. Now I am doing 5000 steps in 50 minutes. And I plan to keep increasing it a little every day.
-
Having an accountability partner: I did a writing challenge a few months ago with a group of 3 other ladies. I was able to finish the challenge by writing 500 words a day for 15 days, finishing a short story.
With the help of this book, I learned the process of creating new habits. As James Clear writes, “Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?” A simple formula, that can help you in building any kind of habit.
So, in a nutshell, if you were to read just one book in your lifetime, make sure you read this one, and then make a habit of reading more. * wink *