6. June - J. Clear, Atomic Habits

I'd be lying if I said I read this because I didn't.

Instead, I listened to it as an audiobook, and let me tell you - audiobooks aren't really my thing, but putting them on while doing mundane things has sure changed my tune. Cardio in the gym, audiobook, vacuuming the house, audiobook, stuck in traffic, audiobook. You get the drift. My, my, my, how chores become so much more enjoyable when you realise you can learn and chore away, at the same time! Magic.

Well, June's book/audiobook (you get it, I'm not going to keep doing that, because 1 it is super annoying to type and 2 you get it) is Atomic Habits. I wanted to read this last month but got sidetracked by Dr. Gupta and I don't regret it, but Atomic Habits... it was all I thought it was going to be and I am happy I finally got around to it.

Atomic Habits has only added to the last 5 months' worth of self-help books I have read and both reinforced and given me a little more insight into how to create long-lasting and sustainable habits to get what I want out of this one life. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it was 'amazingly life-changing' it has reinforced that the effort I have put in so far, is leading me in the right direction. It has also come as a good reminder on why I need to keep at it because these winter blues have been hitting pretty hard lately and it has been too easy to fall back into watching 2hrs of TV after dinner and then heading to bed. Anyways, let's get into the book review...

Title: Atomic Habits

Author: James Clear

Pages: 320

*This is my opinion. Nothing in here is "fact" - just saying.

James Clear isn't lying when he says your habits form your identity, and if you want to build better habits, then the best way is to attach them to the identity you want your habits to represent. Your identity has the ability to 'bring you down' or 'build you up' and the key to ensuring your identity builds you up is to build habits that reinforce your desired identity. When I think about the habits I have and what they say about my identity, or what I want them to say about my identity, I can see the logic in this.

"Your habits shape your identity, and your identity your habits"

But it isn't just your identity your habits represent, they are also the foundation of your system and as Clear says if your system isn't supporting your desired outcome then you aren't focusing enough on your habits. Your system is the collection of your daily habits and Clear talks about how all too often we become so obsessed with the outcome that we don't pay enough attention to what will get us the outcome, before we focus on the outcome. He further adds that while it's good to have goals, to give us some direction on where we want to go in life, we shouldn't focus on just achieving the goal, but rather ensuring our system supports us in achieving that goal first. With a solid system in place, any goal you set should be in theory, achievable.

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

It's in this, that Clear identifies people get confused between building a habit and achieving a goal. What he drives home is that building habits shouldn't be the goal, habits should be part of getting you to your goal. Taking a systems approach, building good habits should be thought about as contributing to setting up a good support system. Thinking about my identity and what I would like my habits to say about it, let's start with these book reviews. If I take what Clear says about identity, systems, goals, and habits and then apply it to this situation it looks something like this:

Goal: Read 1 self-help book a month and then write & publish a review of it on Linkedin (for a year)

Identity: I want to be consistent, prove to myself I can achieve the goals I set, get better at writing with each article and build an informal portfolio to demonstrates I am a good writer.

Habit/s: 15mins of reading every day, 10mins of writing/proofreading/rewriting every day

System: Combining the 15mins of reading into my morning routine and the 10mins of writing into my evening routine, amongst other daily habits I complete.

Now if I'm being honest, there was a week or 2 in June where I really considered giving this whole writing book review's up - so much so that this version of my review has been edited and added to in the middle of July! It was mainly because I had a tonne of stuff going on at that time and reading/listening to a self-help books fell low on the list of stuff I wanted and needed to do. But, even though I went through 2 weeks of feeling like that, I still managed to get through this book and write a review. Why? Because the habits I identified above, have become a core part of my system and I was still spending 15mins listening and 10mins writing even if I wasn't sure I was going to push "publish".

What Clear has written about has only reinforced that the habits I have been working so hard to build since reading Can't Hurt Me and The Compound Effect are definitely worth continuing.

"Habits are the compound interest of self-imrpovement"

What I really liked about Atomic Habits is how Clear breaks common sense things down into small, bite-sized chunks that are easily digestible. While what he writes sounds like common sense when you're listening (or reading) he is actually breaking down and distilling quite a complex topic into simple behaviors you can easily apply in your everyday life. His writing is drawn from proven ideas from biology, psychology, and even neuroscience.

Not only does Clear talk about building habits, but he also talks about getting better 1% at a time. No upheaving your life to make drastic changes like cleaning out the cupboard of everything remotely sweet, no starting a crazy strict fitness regime. He promotes rather, sticking to your habits, refining them bit by bit, day by day. If you do this, then you are achieving improvement 1% at a time and that same effect, also talked about in the Compound Effect, will have a far greater and longer-lasting payout.

"At the time, professional cyclists in Great Britain had endured nearly one hundred years of mediocrity... What made him different from previous coaches was his relentless commitment to a strategy that he referred to as "the aggreation of marginal gains", which was the philosphy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do"

Clear shares stories of people who have successfully employed the tips he shares in their life to create systems that work and generate success. The stand-out story for me was the British cycling team who simply focused on improving habits to build a winning Olympic campaign. As I was riding, in the gym, on my stationary bike listening to that story, I have to say it gave me that extra oomph to finish my 40mins with a bang.

Now, while I do reccommend this book and think there are some valuable lessons, tips and tricks to be learnt, the book does lack diversity. Of the examples used to prove that this theory and thinking about building a good system and building good habits works, the majority of them came from relatively privileged and wealthy, white males. While each example is a success story, it would connect to a larger and diverse audience if there were examples that readers/listeners who weren't white or male could connect to as well.

In general, the book is an easy read and when it comes to self-help books and development I have come to realisation that they're not going to be everyones cup of tea. I know I walked away from it with a more refined focus on building a solid foundation (system), but my advice (and this goes for any self-help book out there), would be to take what you need from it and leave the rest.

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If you'd like more information on the author and other work he has completed, you can find him here: James Clear

If you want to purchase the kindle version online*: Atomic Habits

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*I have figured out how to use affiliate links on Amazon, so if you purchase this e-book I think I'm set to make about 0.2c :), yay me!