Oftentimes in life, we
keep doing certain things that we even don’t cherish doing it. Relating it to
myself, I don’t like that habit in me that constantly checks social media in a
day as if like, I have a payment to collect by logging in into it. To extrapolate
on this matter, some of the similar bad habits like smoking, drinking, wasting
time in trifling conversations are self-sabotaging and it makes you feel sucked
up, antsy and unfulfilled at the end even though you are fully embracing the
process.
On the other hand, certain habits in your life make you more disciplined and at the same time, it makes you happier as a person. When there is consistency in such habits, towards the end, it makes you the better version of who you are, and radically it takes you to the height of your truest potential. These types of habits can be referred to as good habits.
Well, getting to the
point, Atomic Habits is one of the internationally bestselling books written
by James Clear. The book is basically about how habits develop in us and how we
can leverage small good habits and at the same time how we can try avoiding bad
habits. Depending on the above main ideas, I will provide a simpler context or
insight into what the book has convinced me.
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| Picture source: Google |
“Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work
for you or against you, which is why understanding the Details is essential.’’
Wanted to change a
habit?
Usually, there are said
to be three levels of changes in developing different habits that are outcome
change, process change, and identity change. The identity change can be referred
to as ‘changing belief of yourself ‘, which is inevitable in developing good
habits. Therefore, it is said that if you ever wished to change a habit, you
must first focus on identity change or how to change a belief of yourself than
outcome change or the result.
4 simple steps build a good
habit
The four steps in
building good habits are cue, craving, response, and reward. Cue is like a triggering agent that starts behaviour. After that, complementation or
motivation is done by craving which leads to performing of actual habit, which
is the response. Next, the particular action is performed to achieve the end
objective and eventually a reward is delivered by a response. The response then
either to teach person worthiness to remember particular habit in future or it
aid to satisfy craving which is 2nd step to habit-forming.
Therefore if you wanted
to build good habits, you must;
Make cue obvious
Make craving more
attractive
Make response easy
And make reward
satisfying
However, if you wish to
break the bad habit then you need to do the opposite of what is reflected as
MUST above.
Rules to build better
habits (Four Laws of Behavioural Change)
1. Make cue obvious
To make the cue obvious, with
a sense of awareness you need to pick the right time and location to perform that
particular habit. For example, if you wanted to develop a habit of meditation
you need to choose a location that is not chaotic. Basically, in this section, an author
elaborated the concept like implementation intension and habit stacking.
To apply those concepts
following formulae should be followed:
Implementation
Intention: I will [Behaviour] at [Time] in [location]
Habit Stacking: After
[Current habit], I will [new habit]
2. Make craving attractive
Making a craving
attractive is relying more on your dopamine secretion. Conversely, dopamine is
said to be a triggering agent of bad habits like constant checks on social media
and many other bad habits. However, it was found that without dopamine even human
loses interest in everything they do, which even includes loss of interest in
drinking water that eventually leads to death.
Therefore, to make the craving
of good habit more attractive or to have a rush of dopamine to perform a good
habit, I find temptation building as an intriguing method among other methods which
were described. The temptation building can be done by blending habit stacking
and temptation building formulae, that is;
After (this habit), I
will perform (a habit I need) or after (a habit I need), I will perform (a habit
I want),
Additionally, it was
found that we pick habits based on three groups of people like the close, the many, and the powerful ones. Therefore, it is popularly said, it is very important to
choose what type of people we surround ourselves with.
3. Make response easy
The third law
highlights the importance of practice than planning. In a simpler context, it
is said that practising small thing for repeated times that makes that habit
evident. Additionally, there is said to be a bliss point after which, what you
have done over time becomes automatic like washing your face or brushing your teeth
right after you wake up.
Further, the concept is
elaborated with terms like a decisive moment, a 2-minute rule, and a commitment
rule, which is insightful as well.
‘’Walk slowly, but never backward.’’ James Clear.
4. Make reward satisfying
As more people are
inclined to instant gratification, habit tracking is found to be a useful
method to make a particularly good habit satisfying. Habit tracking keeps
records of your daily habits and reflects upon them. In that way, when you do more
good works or finds the increased repetition of a good habit, the more
satisfying you will remain.
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