Some great tips from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear
Are you disappointed that you can’t stick with your habits or that you feel that you are not consistent with your tasks and feel stuck all the time? Then this post is for you. I had the same problems in the past with building up my discipline and I wondered what might I be doing wrong so I picked up the book called “Atomic Habits” and I thought I would write down some practical tips that I learned from the book.
“The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become. Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” This is a quote from the book and I have found it really helpful in my life. For example you say: “I’m trying to quit smoking” but that implies that you are a smoker already who struggles to quit and your mind will reinforce that identity. Instead you should say: “I’m not a person who smokes”, this is a small change but your brain will reinforce your new identity and it will try everything to prove that it’s right.
Second useful tip I found is to optimize your environment. It’s hard to stick to your diet when you know that there is a chocolate ice cream waiting for you in the fridge. Instead of relying on your willpower you should learn to optimize your environment so that there aren’t as much opportunities to relapse. You didn’t lose the second you ate that ice cream but you lost the second you bought it in the store and put it in the fridge. You need to learn to just reduce exposure to your bad habits and they will start fading away by themselves.
Third and last most important thing I learned that you should never skip a habit twice. Because on the second time you are already building up a new habit of skipping your good habits. For example you skipped your workout today then tomorrow you will definitely need to go, because you are building up a habit of not working out.
In conclusion:
Change you identity
Learn to optimize your environment
Never skip twice