book club: ‘atomic habits’
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Why do we do the things we do? In his New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits, James Clear answers this question and provides a simple framework that we can all use to build good habits and break bad ones. If you're looking for a helpful book on habit formation, read on for my summary of Atomic Habits.
The book is divided into four sections: (1) the psychology of habits, (2) the benefits of good habits, (3) the problems with bad habits, and (4) how to change your habits. In the first section, Clear explains that our behavior is largely determined by our environment and the cues that we encounter on a daily basis. For example, if you always have a healthy snack available when you're feeling peckish, you're more likely to eat it than if unhealthy junk food is within easy reach.
In the second section, Clear lists some of the benefits of good habits, such as increased productivity, improved health, and greater life satisfaction. He also debunks some common myths about habit formation, such as the idea that we need willpower or motivation in order to stick to our goals. In reality, forming new habits is mostly about changing our environment and establishing new cues and triggers.
The third section is all about the problems with bad habits. Not only do they make us less productive and healthy, but they can also be contagious—meaning that if someone close to us has a bad habit, we're more likely to develop that same habit ourselves. This is why it's so important to surround ourselves with people who have positive lifestyles that we want to emulate.
In the fourth and final section, Clear outlines his framework for changing our habits. He explains that there are four main steps: (1) cue, (2) craving, (3) response, and (4) reward. The cue is the trigger that tells your brain to go into autopilot mode and start performing a particular behavior; the craving is the desire or motivation for performing that behavior; the response is the actual behavior itself; and the reward is what satisfies that craving. Once you've identified the cue-craving-reward cycle for a particular habit, you can start working on changing your response.
If you're looking for an easy-to-understand guide on habit formation, I recommend Atomic Habits by James Clear. In this book, Clear provides readers with a step-by-step framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones. He also debunks some common myths about habit formation and explains how our environment plays a big role in our behavior. If you're struggling to form new habits or break old ones, this book is definitely worth checking out!
