Words of Wisdom from Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear is one of the best books I’ve read about goal setting. James clearly explains what challenges people face when trying to establish good habits, why they often fail and what they can do to set themselves up for success. Here are some of my favourite quotes and learnings from Atomic Habits, which I hope inspire you to read this book too:
- Every action you take towards your goal counts
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
2. Happiness lies in progress
“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”
3. A good system will help you achieve your goals
“Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.”
4. Commitment leads to long-term success
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”
5. Try something different
“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.”
6. Be a professional and stick to a schedule
“Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.”
7. Avoid tempting situations
“When scientists analyze people who appear to have tremendous self-control, it turns out those individuals aren’t all that different from those who are struggling. Instead, “disciplined” people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control. In other words, they spend less time in tempting situations.”
8. Keep your habits exciting, or find new ones
“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.”
9. Determine what you want
“Your actions reveal how badly you want something. If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t really want it. It’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself. Your actions reveal your true motivations.”
10. Fall in love with boredom
“The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.”
11. Get back on the horse – fast
“Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit. This is a distinguishing feature between winners and losers. Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work. But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast. I think this principle is so important that I’ll stick to it even if I can’t do a habit as well or as completely as I would like. Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.”
