Book Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear.

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

Background

After reading the book Atomic Habits, by “ James Clear a couple of times & listened to its Audiobook more times than I care to remember, I’m of the opinion, it is a well-crafted book geared towards improving one’s focus and purpose for personal and professional growth.

The Book

Title: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.

Author: James Clear (Goodreads Author)

Publisher: Avery

Publication Date: October 16th 2018

Book Genre: Self-help.

Goodreads rating: 4.38.

Book Summary

“ Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. 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 behaviours that lead to remarkable results.

This book will help you reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits.

What I learned while reading the book;

• Small habits do not add up but rather compound. That is the power of atomic habits. Small incremental actions, changes, and thoughts well acted upon and celebrated right lead to incredible compound effects in one’s life. Choose wisely the good habits to build and the bad ones to break consistently.
• Your environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour. Surroundings, support systems and the values one embodies in life greatly influence one’s thoughts, beliefs and actions for a lifetime.
• When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. Learn to be deliberate, and action-oriented. Say no when and if you should and stop people-pleasing in order to free up more time to do the things that really matter.
• One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. Do not be afraid to change or think differently. Just stay true to yourself and in the “present” of your actions and decisions.
• No situation is impermanent. Life is constantly changing, so you need to periodically check in with yourself to see if your old habits and beliefs are still serving you. Incorporating the PDCA technique can help you manage your habits.
• Declutter your life and environment as often as possible when it becomes too crowded with things, people, thoughts, and promises that are not contributing to your growth.
• Do not be afraid for tomorrow is too far away, so start now. The only time you wait for tomorrow is if you have to sleep on an idea or decision just to be sure, you are being rational before acting on it.
• Working hard becomes a kind of fun habit that brings self-satisfaction from pushing yourself to the limit, knowing that all the effort is going to pay off. Failure, limitations, and feelings of “ impossible” are creations of our imagination, only in our heads.
• The more immediate, the pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals. Is it a want, a need or a muse? learn to practise a bit of delayed gratification
• The more immediate and more costly a mistake is, the faster you will learn from it. Make mistakes now, fast and more often to learn from and quickly adjust. Get comfortable unlearning and learning a lot of things.

Word of caution

“Self-help” books can sometimes be misleading since most of them are either based on “inspiration-smoke” or “to-dos” that are not always applicable to everyone or all situations.

So, use this book and other self-help as a guide rather than a “rule to action” bible. As you read these books, try to understand their message, extract tips and ideas that can help you improve yourself personally or professionally and then make your personal routine.

I must say, it takes patience and discipline because trying to improve yourself while living up to social standards and people-pleasing is what gets us in so much trouble, to begin with.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, small improvements add up over time; — So focus on who you want to become not what you want to achieve; Pair new habits with a specific time and location; Track your habits in a simple, easy, and visual way; Create a habit contract to keep you accountable; and lastly, Make it easy to change your habits if need be.

Only read books that encourage you to take action immediately, which I believe, is one of many positive traits being emphasized by reads like Atomic Habits.

Originally published at https://tealfeed.com.