Review Blog #2: Atomic Habits — by James Clear

The Surprising Power of Small Habits : 

Atomic Habits — by James Clear

Title: Atomic Habits- Book Review
Book: Atomic Habits 
Author: James Clear
Publisher: Random House Business Books
Pages: 320 (Paperback)
First Published: 2018

- Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results.

It is very simple to overestimate the significance of a single pivotal event and undervalue the benefits of daily small victories. We delude ourselves far too frequently into believing that great success demands great action. Whether our goal is to write a book, build a business, lose weight, win a championship, or accomplish any other goal, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to achieve something extraordinary that people will talk about. In the meantime, a 1% improvement isn't very noteworthy; sometimes, it's barely perceptible, but over time, it can have much greater significance. It's amazing how much of a difference even a small improvement can make over time. The math says that if you can improve by 1 percent every day for a year, you will have improved by 37 times by the end of the year. On the other hand, if you deteriorate by 1% every day for a year, your decline will be almost zero. What begins as a tiny victory or a slight setback grows into something much bigger.

• Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

• If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.

• Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.

• Success is the product of daily habits — not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

Forget About Goals, Focus on Systems Instead:

• Winners and losers have the same goals.
• Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.
• Goals restrict your happiness.
• Goals are at odds with long-term progress.

The Book in 3 Sentences : 

-Real change comes from the compound effects of hundreds of small decisions or habits that over time accumulate to produce remarkable results.

-In order to reach our objectives, we must first create systems composed of individual procedures and behaviors that will lead us there.

-Self-improvement habits are the result of the positive and negative things we do on a daily basis building up to significant change over time.

How Your Habits Shape Your Identity : 

Why is it so difficult to establish healthy habits and so simple to repeat bad ones? Making small daily habit improvements can have a big impact on your life. However, it's more likely that you'll be doing the same thing rather than something better at this time next year.

Three Layers Of Behavior Change.

• Three different levels of change exist: identity, process, and outcome changes.
• Focusing on who you want to become rather than what you want to accomplish will help you change your habits the most.
• Your habits are what shape who you are. Every deed cast counts toward the kind of person you want to be.
• You must constantly update and broaden your identity while also editing your beliefs if you want to become the best version of yourself.
• The true significance of habits lies not in their ability to improve your performance but rather in their capacity to alter your self-perception.

How to Build Better Habits in Four Simple Steps :

What four easy steps can you take to develop better habits?

A feedback loop consisting of four steps—cue, craving, response, and reward—can be used to analyze any habit.

1. cue : cue is a signal to a person to do something.
2. craving : a powerful desire for something.
3. response : a reaction to something.
4. reward : a deserved outcome.

The four stages of habit are best described as a feedback loop. 

In conclusion, the cue sets off a craving, which in turn inspires a reaction, which yields a reward, which quells the craving and, in the end, is linked to the cue. These four actions work together to create a neurological feedback loop that eventually enables you to form automatic habits: cue, craving, response, reward. The habit loop is the name given to this cycle. This four-step process is not an occasional occurrence; rather, it is an ongoing feedback loop that is active right now, during every second of your life. The brain is always taking in information from its surroundings, making predictions about what might happen next, experimenting with different reactions, and analyzing the outcomes. We use the process repeatedly without realizing the amount of work that has gone into it because it is finished in an instant.

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.

The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible.

How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible :

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

-Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

-Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

-Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

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