Atomic Habits Book Review

USE ATOMIC HABITS TO BECOME THE PERSON YOU WANT TO BE.

Atomic Habits is my self-improvement bible, and if you’re looking for lasting change, it might be your golden ticket to freedom.

In 2019 my husband downloaded James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and before I even finished the audiobook, I was sold. Something clicked. It all made sense, and I immediately ordered the hardcover. And for the first time since college, I wrote in a book, like all over the place. Marking, tagging, underlining. So much usable information!

There are endless habit books out there, but this one is at the top of my book recommendation list because it’s approachable. While the author uses psychology, biology, and neuroscience, he also uses analogies and stories to help us understand more fully making the book very approachable.

Before I dive into my Atomic Habits book review, let’s define what a habit is to help you understand where I’m going with my breakdown.

A habit is something you do on repeat without thinking about it. We tend to label habits as bad (staying up too late scrolling IG) or good (hugging your child each morning), but roughly 40% of what we do EVERY DAY are automatic habits.

From the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, you’re doing things without thinking (putting on shoes, brushing your teeth, driving to the store, etc.).

When you understand how much of your day is run on autopilot, you can start to imagine how your life could look if you tapped into the power of automatic habits.

As hard as it is for me to narrow down my top takeaways from Atomic Habits, I’ve got four main points for you to help you decide if:

A.) you want to explore automating your habits
B.) if this is the book for you.

So lets’ get to it.

Atomic Habit Top Four Take-Aways

① START WITH IDENTITY

Decide what type of person you want to become and figure out how to get there. This is the key to lasting change.

Let’s use losing weight as an example:

We’ve lived a year of stress eating and stress living. The scale (and our pants) tell us it’s time to get back to our pre-pandemic weight. Right now, the goal is dropping weight, and we’re motivated to fit into our skinny jeans.

You and I both know how hard losing weight really is. No matter how much we plan and deprive ourselves of the food we really want to eat, dropping the extra weight is not only tricky, but it’s usually temporary. (For many of us, it’s a lifelong struggle. )

But here’s the good news: when we shift our goal to a feeling or an identity, we increase our chances of lasting change.

Successful behavior change is rooted in an internal outcome, not an external one. So rather than setting a goal of losing 8lbs, set the goal of feeling strong, healthy, and comfortable in your clothes.

Ask yourself, “what type of person feels strong, healthy, and comfortable in their clothes?”

Then emulate their behavior.

② SUPPORTIVE SYSTEMS

HOW you achieve your goal is more important than setting the goal.

Knowing where you want to go is a small part of the solution. How you get there is key, so do the work and make it easy to win (hard to fail).

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

—James Clear

Let’s keep going with the weight loss theme.

Now that you’ve decided you want to be the type of person who eats nutritious meals and moves daily, how will you do what they do?.

If you stock your pantry with chips and all the deliciously dopamine-triggering snacks, you’re setting up some serious roadblocks. You haven’t yet developed the automatic habits of a person who doesn’t eat sour cream and onion potato chips, so failure is inevitable.

Instead, put the treats out of reach, stock your kitchen with more nutritious food, etc… Make being the type of person you want to be easy with systems that support how you want to feel down the road (5 hours, 5 days, a year, and so on).

Since I’m a planner, this speaks to me on a profound level.

If you want to make achieving your desired outcome easier, join a group. Surround yourself with a supportive group with a common goal. Failing alone is easy. Failing when you have people to help prop you up is difficult.

③ HABIT STACKING:

Increase your success rate by grouping together small, easy-to-do tasks.

Remember how nearly half of our day is on autopilot? Use those existing habits to create new ones that support who you’re trying to become.

Choose a habit you already do (brush teeth) and stack the habit you want to create before or after it (drink a glass of water). Once you create this new tiny (atomic) habit, you can add on stringing several habits together, and before you know it, you’ve got an AUTOMATIC routine that supports the type of person you want to be.

Imagine how productive, balanced, more content we would feel if 60% of our day was run on autopilot?

④ CONSISTENCY WINS:

This last takeaway hit me hard, but I didn’t realize its importance until the boredom of the pandemic set in around month 5. The monotony of everything on repeat challenged me and what I used to enjoy doing became mundane. But I kept going and eventually learned how to push through the boredom to find fulfillment in the process and progress.

👉 Note: when people get bored, they typically quit. So be patient.

Even when you don’t want to, showing up every day is key to becoming more of the person you want to be. Remind yourself what someone who is already living the identity you strive for is doing. We all have bad moments, but do your best not to let it spiral and turn into a bad day or, worse, a bad week.

KEEP GOING. STAY ON TRACK.

👉 SUMMARY: In the end, you need an intrinsic goal (a feeling/identity), a supportive plan to get there, and relentless perseverance.

This book has been a game-changer (life changer) for me. If you’re on the path to self-improvement, it’s an excellent resource.

PARENTING BONUS: it will help you make the most of your days and show your kids at an early age the importance of showing up (even when you don’t want to). Can you imagine how our lives would look today if we learned the power of perseverance when we were young?

Happy reading, friends!

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