James Carville's new book is called Atomic. He talks about what the word atomic means and why he chose it as a title. The author says habits are kind of like the atoms of our lives in a way. And if you make changes that are small and easy to do on top of each other, then you can end up with some really remarkable or powerful results.
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
Thanks to all of the sponsors of this episode. You can find all of the sponsors you heard me mention on this episode on our Podcast Sponsors page.
Want to support the podcast? Beyond checking out our sponsors, you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Click on any of the links below to make that happen.
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher
You can also click on this link to paste the podcast feed into your podcast app of choice.
Thanks again for listening to A Productive Conversation. See you later.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
