My 7 Takeaways from Atomic Habits by James Clear

Treat Life as a Marathon, not a Sprint

With two days left to the end of 2022, this close to the beginning of the new year is the perfect time to read a book like Atomic Habits by James Clear.

We all know how it usually goes. We are excited about the start of the new year and we jump on the New Year's resolutions bandwagon. Whatever these resolutions are about, losing weight, exercising more regularly, learning a language, quitting smoking, or saving money, unfortunately, most of the time we rarely stick to these resolutions beyond a few weeks.

When you ask people why they are not able to stick with their resolutions and build necessary habits, the answer usually is — I lack discipline, I lack willpower, I don’t have time, life has taken over, or something similar. But the truth is, what you need are methods that can help when your when willpower is in short supply. Enter Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book explores how incremental improvements based on robust systems and routines compound into significant changes over a long period of time. What you need are motivation (to keep going) or methods (because methods are more reliable than motivation) and time. Success comes down to daily habits, not singular heroic effort and achievements.

It is not always fun. It is sometimes boring. I am considered reasonably disciplined and sometimes when I recommend friends to build good habits, for example, exercise regularly — they tell me: but not everyone is like you. I smile and explain — if you think I just cheerfully exercise every time, you are so wrong. Many times I do not enjoy it, and sometimes I do not want to do it at all. But mostly, it is just good, functional systems that keep me on track. What matters is, I never regret it afterward. And this knowledge helps me persevere the next time. And the time after that. Sticking with systems over trusting motivation is one of many great pieces of advice in this book. Overall, Atomic Habits, in my opinion, is a definitive guide to setting good habits and eliminating bad ones. So much so that after reading it, I don’t think I need to read any other material on the topic, even if I already have them in my library. Sorry, Charles Duhigg and Gretchen Rubin.

With this in mind, here are my 7 takeaways from Atomic Habits by James Clear:

1. You are a lagging measure of your habits. Your current results are not nearly as important as your trajectory. So if you are on the right path, results are just a matter of time. But keep in mind, bad habits are also exactly like that. The other issue is that we tend to overestimate the dramatic moments in our lives, although it is precisely the small improvements that add up to make the biggest difference over a long enough time. As James Clear explains: “Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero.” So, if you know what your direction is, deciding on the minimum necessary input per day and implementing it is the smartest way to get closer to what you want to achieve. You are a lagging measure of your habits because it takes time for the impact to materialize. Think about long days and weeks of practice that culminate in a (usually) somewhat unexpected qualitative leap — suddenly everything clicks into place.
2. Working backward from magic. Another great concept from James Clear. Instead of the language of goal-setting, he uses this phrase to explain the concept of envisioning the ideal goal and reverse engineering the path that takes you there. Aside from the usual goal-setting practice, think, for example, of Richard Feynmann’s favorite 12 problems approach, which is also what Tiago Forte uses in his Build a Second Brain. Ask yourself what is it that you want. Get clear. You don’t need (at this point) to make it overly specific. The more specific, the better, but your target will keep changing as you get better. It is important to keep asking yourself these questions. Things will get clearer and clearer over time. Once you have clarity, you should define the steps that would move you toward your goals. Anything, however little, that moves you towards that objective is a step forward. For example, with my intense work and exercise schedule, I often have very little time for my Spanish studies. But no matter how busy I am, I make sure to do two things every day — read a page of the Spanish version of the Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and write two daily entries in the diary in Spanish. These activities take at most 10–15 minutes. It is not a 2-hour study session, sure. But it is a small step in the right direction.
3. “You are what you repeatedly do.” This quote from Aristotle perfectly summarizes one of the main messages of the Atomic Habits — that habits shape your identity. As James Clear explains, to build a habit, we need to first take on the new identity of ourselves as a person with this habit. With the habit becoming the inalienable part of your identity, “every action you take is like a vote for or against the identity you want to have”. So you need to first decide what kind of a person you want to be, then start becoming that person through small steps — consistent actions that constitute a habit that is most likely to make you into that person. This is kaizen. Incremental improvements. One step at a time. Look again at the sub-title of the book — that is how tiny changes bring about remarkable results. By helping you reshape your very identity.
4. Make it Obvious, Attractive, Easy, and Satisfying. These are four main principles of how we can make it more likely for the habits to stick. This is the largest part of the book and it includes a large number of practical tools we can use. Clear suggests to make effort to design your environment to trigger actions related to the target habit. This does not only apply to the physical environment. You need to surround yourself with people who have a similar vision, who either already have or are working to have the kind of habits you want. If you become a part of the right culture, you are more likely to succeed. Join a culture where these habits are the norm. It boosts accountability and helps maintain motivation when you hit low points. Also, to make things easier, you need to think of ways to reduce friction. You could automate your habits, and invest in technology that can be useful, conversely, you can add friction to make bad habits more difficult to follow. Moreover, to make things satisfying, Clear suggests tracking your habits, to gamify habit development. You can create systems that can help you stay on track, show the gaps, build streaks, or use apps that already do this. Tracking is extremely powerful, but you need to make sure not to be driven by tracking, do not forget the true purpose of the activity. Finally, every once in a while, change things up, and add an element of novelty.
5. You will stray. Make sure to get back on track. James Clear makes this very important point over and over, not only in his book but also in his public appearances on podcasts and interviews. One of the main things that make a difference between someone successful and someone who is not is how fast one bounces back. Everyone misses a workout. But do you miss two in a row? How easily do you fall off track? There are different approaches you can use to make sure you get back to it. Check out my article Feel Like Skipping a Workout? where I describe some of such methods when trying to stay consistent with your exercise plan. Tracking your habits gives you specific information on how you are doing, so make sure to track and review your performance against your targets. This way, even if you stray, you’ll know you’ve strayed and you’ll find your way back.
6. Systems vs goals — if you want to consistently move forward, grow, learn, and improve, you need to focus on the system instead of the outcomes. Goals are good for one-time wins, systems are good for those who want to win repeatedly. As Clear explains: “Winners and losers have the same goals.” Professionals stick to a schedule, amateurs let life get in the way. Goal-based success is momentary. Process-based progress is continuous. Clear continues to explain: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Systems come to your aid when you are at your least consistent and disciplined. So trust your process and get to work. Motivation is overrated, systems and processes decide whether you will stick with the process and thus, what will be the outcome. To get a sense of how to apply this in practice, see my article on the subject here.
7. Focus on action. Remember, research, preparing for action, and setting the scene are all important, but don’t let it all fool you into thinking that you are taking action. The action is the key. At the end of the day, you need to get things done. So get on it.

To drive the point home, James Clear quotes Jacob Riis: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it — but all that had gone before.”

On the subject of getting back on track (which is perhaps my favorite message from the Atomic Habits), I was once talking to a friend and he said something that made me pause. Talking of his training plans being derailed by life, he said: “I feel like I have lost track of who I want to be.” I responded: “I don’t think so. You would not be saying that if you did. Those who lose track, usually don’t know that they have”.

Setbacks will happen. As a wise man (or a woman) once said, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass… It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”