Book Review: Atomic Habits By James Clear | Beyond The Cover
Practical Methods For Effective Habit-Building & Understanding Science Behind It
Have you ever imagined reading a whole book on the topic of habits?
I didn’t.
Until I laid my hands on Atomic Habits by James Clear.
I usually skim through the introductions when I start reading a book but it did not happen with this one. The section sets the premises for the book with the writer giving a glimpse into the hardships he faced early on in his life and explaining how he surmounted the odds to turn things around for him — by harnessing the power of habits!
When we reflect on building habits we think about the 21-day process, the New Year resolutions and finding a tribe for motivation. The book calls attention to understanding the science behind human behaviour, selecting effective habits, reflecting and reviewing, and letting the magic of compounding do the trick.
The writer turned physical sufferings and disappointments into growth opportunities through sheer determination and consistency.
With time, Clear started teaching his tested methods to those in need which ultimately led to the creation of Atomic Habits. He makes a remarkable point when he states that human behaviour is dynamic and is prone to changes, often, according to the situations but the fundamentals of human behaviour do not change.
Clear calls his book an “operating manual” and draws ideas from biology, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and others that have existed for decades.
Interestingly, if you pay attention to the meaning of the word “atomic” that is printed on the first page of the book, it says, atomic is:
- an extremely small amount of a thing
- the source of immense energy or power
This caught my eye! How subtly the meaning of this word has been described when looked at together. Habits that are repeated every day, which may seem unimportant/small, can become a source of immense energy or power to navigate through life!
We often try to follow in the footsteps of people who have succeeded in making something of their own. We look at artists, engineers, and scientists for inspiration. In contemporary times, we are hooked to the lives of creators and influencers with massive communities in the digital verse.
This is logical and beneficial but discounting years of hard work and possibly, innumerable heartbreaks that might have gone behind making them an “overnight success” is not wise according to the writer.
The book emphasises making incremental changes and the immense value they create as they compound over the years. It highlights the science behind improving by 1 per cent every day rather than striving for once-in-a-lifetime results.
It also accentuates the role of time and persistent efforts towards goal attainment.
Another exceptional point the book mentions is the tough act of keeping our identities separate from our current situation. We might or might not be where we want ourselves to be and the contentment/dissatisfaction related to it often consumes us. Here, it becomes crucial to disregard “how successful or unsuccessful you are right now” and instead work towards gradual progress.
The writer makes a strong case for possessing a mindset that thinks long-term and pays attention to the current trajectory rather than current results.
To reap the benefits of habits, we must stick to them and make them part of our identity. Once we cross a critical milestone, we start noticing their impact on our lives.
I decided to make physical fitness a part of my lifestyle. I have been working out at the gym six days a week for more than a year now. But it has been only in the last two months that I have started observing changes in my body, mental wellbeing, mood and energy levels.
There were days when I wanted to quit gymming since I was not seeing any results but a tiny voice asked me to stay consistent despite the not-so-positive results.
Showing up and working out for an hour every day became the two non-negotiables and today, I am witnessing the gains.
We understand habits in their most basic context — to repeat certain actions until they become part of our lifestyle but the author highlights that habit formation is a mindset and identity game. It is less about the habit of avoiding junk food and more about opting to lead a healthy life through conscious food choices or less about writing an essay every day and more about wanting to become a writer.
Clear writes about the four laws of behaviour change that can be used to build better habits: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
To “make habits obvious” is to find out if the behaviour is effective or not. Asking yourself: “Is the behaviour helping me to become the person that I wish to be?” helps in decision-making.
I used to dread folding my laundry and organising my closet. Everything inside the wardrobe including my accessories used to be a mess. Consequently, I had to spend hours finding something appropriate to wear.
As soon as this realisation hit me, I started allocating time from my routine to this task and soon I started organising other corners of my home as well.
Today, there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place.
Clear begins explaining the second law of “making habits attractive” by associating the habits with positive feelings and focussing on the benefits they could yield. “To make it easy”, as per the third law, the writer suggests harnessing the power of repetition to transform them from effortful practice to automatic behaviour.
“The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity.”
That’s neuroplasticity in action!
He beautifully points out the difference between being in motion (planning and strategising that do not produce results) and taking action (actual execution that delivers results). It’s crucial to operate in action mode.
To “make habits satisfying”, we need to have an enjoyable experience doing them.
“Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them.”
Atomic Habits is truly a manual providing instructions on effective habit-building and explaining the science behind it. It takes readers through stories of renowned personalities and the minor tweaks they made in their lives and repeated over the years to accomplish extraordinary successes.
The only thing I dislike about the book is the inversion of the four laws that have been included within the broad chapters. This particular section talks about eliminating ineffective habits through a different set of strategies. For me, it broke the flow I had to go back and forth to absorb the ideas.
A must-read for every person struggling to implement changes in their lives or trying to stick through the initial challenging days or just someone who wishes to be an instant success ;)
Young and old can benefit from this book.
