Book Review – Atomic Habits
Image: Atomic Habits Kids by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 10 out of 10. An excellent book on developing positive habits and eliminating negative ones.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 1.25.2024; No. 119
Disclaimer: Yes, I am a physician, but I’m not your doctor, and this article does not create a doctor-patient relationship. This article is for educational purposes and should not be seen as medical advice. You should consult with your physician before you rely on this information. This post also contains affiliate links. Please click this LINK for the full disclaimer.
Star Rating – 10 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
James Clear
About the author
James Clear is a writer on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has been featured in publications such as TIME, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and he regularly speaks at Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Clear achieved his BA in biomechanics at Denison University. He publishes the 3-2-1 Newsletter, which has over 2 million subscribers, and his debut book, Atomic Habits, is a bestseller with over 15 million copies sold worldwide and translations in over 50 languages.
General description
Atomic Habits is a book on behavioral change with behaviors framed as habits. Author James Clear offers stories, strategies, and hope for people that they can change any behavior, such as smoking, overeating, or lack of exercise, through a system of small, incremental gains. Readers of Atomic Habits will learn how to adopt positive habits by making them nearly effortless and eliminate negative habits by making them difficult. Topics covered in this book include:
Explaining why it is important to focus on systems instead of goals
Describing the strategy of “the aggregation of marginal gains” (focusing on improving by 1 percent)
Outlining the four stages of habits that create a feedback loop or “habit loop”
Leveraging the approach of “habit stacking” for more rapid behavioral change
Sharing about the power of “temptation bundling” (Premack’s Principle)
Unique and most important aspects
While Atomic Habits focuses on personal behavior change, I believe the impacts of this book extend to leadership. Good leaders require self-discipline, and modeling positive habits can motivate others to emulate them. Understanding the components of behavioral change can also help leaders to be more effective. While author James Clear shares straightforward, actionable methods for starting positive habits and eliminating negative ones, he also explains why all the strategies work. In this thorough and potentially life-changing book, he provides examples from real life, explains findings from research, and explores the deeper meaning underlying not just our behaviors, but our identity, values, and motivations.
The subtitle of this book, An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, makes a simple promise on which the author more than delivers. While James Clear repackages and builds upon existing research and previous books on behavioral change, Atomic Habits is filled with wisdom and strategies for deciding to change and then effectively and lastingly doing so. There are many inspiring quotes and convincing assertions in the book that encourage the reader to adopt the recommended approaches. Important features of this book include:
How the Plateau of Latent Potential can result in a “valley of disappointment” when working toward behavioral change
The feedback loop and connections between habit and self-identity
Four strategies for creating good habits
Make it obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it satisfying
Four strategies for breaking bad habits
Make it invisible
Make it unattractive
Make it difficult
Make it unsatisfying
Developing an awareness of the risk of imitating habits from childhood scripts and social norms
The power of the two-minute rule and “decisive moments” to address procrastination
How to develop and follow through on a “gateway habit”
The use of a “commitment device” to ensure consistency in following through on a behavior change
The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: “What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.”
The Goldilocks Rule of achieving peak motivation
Best quotes
“To be honest, there was nothing legendary or historic about my athletic career. I never ended up playing professionally. However, looking back on those years, I believe I accomplished something just as rare: I fulfilled my potential.”
“The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits—cue, craving, response, and reward—and the four laws of behavior change that evolve out of these steps.”
“Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.”
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.”
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results…Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits.”
“We often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years later that we realize the true value of the previous work we have done.”
“A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. 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.”
“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.”
“Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief.”
“Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it. In fact, the people who don’t have their habits handled are often the ones with the least amount of freedom.”
“The power of context also reveals an important strategy: habits can be easier to change in a new environment.”
“Now, imagine changing just one word: You don’t ‘have’ to. You ‘get’ to. You get to wake up early for work. You get to make another sales call for your business. You get to cook dinner for your family. By simply changing one word, you shift the way you view each event. You transition from seeing these behaviors as burdens and turn them into opportunities.”
“The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved.”
“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers interested in a book with straightforward, accessible ideas on personal behavioral change are likely to enjoy Atomic Habits.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers interested in an academic text or who are dismissive of simple, effective strategies are unlikely to enjoy Atomic Habits.
Conclusion
Atomic Habits is an excellent book on developing positive habits and eliminating negative ones.