The process of behavior change almost always starts with awareness. Once you slow down and like see the links in the chain, you see the different behaviors you're performing each day, that clarifies a little bit where to insert a new habit or where to step in to change that routine. The point is not to like feel guilty or to judge your behavior, it's to become aware and slow down and see what's actually going on.
We're going back into the vault for this episode for a conversation that I had in January 2019 with the one and only James Clear. James is best known as the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy And Proven Way To Build Good Habits And Break Bad Ones.
During our conversation, James discusses why he wrote Atomic Habits and how it differs from other habit books, the importance of breaking habits down into "atomic" small changes, and the "two minute rule" for making habits simple and easy to do. We also get into how seasons and social reinforcement can help with habit consistency, strategies for curtailing behaviours that you want to do in moderation, and his collaboration with Baronfig.
Key Discussion Points
- Start small with habits by scaling them down until they take two minutes or less. This makes them simple to automate.
- Layer many small habit changes on top of each other to achieve big results over time.
- Use tools and software to help with habit consistency, especially for infrequent habits.
- Slow down and pay attention to your current behaviours to identify where to insert new habits.
- Write things down in a central place to capture ideas and sort them later. Don't worry about organization in the moment.
I hope this very productive conversation with James Clear gives you some valuable insights into building good habits through small, sustainable changes. Atomic Habits provides a practical, science-backed approach that you can start implementing today. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good – take that first small step and build the habit from there.
Links Worth Exploring
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