Contents
How Building Little New Habits Can Change Your Life
Psychology
Through very small changes, we can change our daily routine permanently
Just open “Atomic habits” (Diana), in its first pages we find two definitions: “atomic” (extremely small quantity; immense source of power) and “habit” (routine and practice that is carried out on a regular basis; that has an automatic response). It is these two words that give the book its name, and the two ideas on which everything that James Clear explains in it is based.
Clear is a specialist in long-lasting habit training. On the web, with two million visits per month, the specialist breaks down the art and science of habit formation to its most elemental state and shows that any goal is within reach, as long as we start from the simplest.
“We often convince ourselves that huge success requires equally relevant action,” says the writer, who continues through the pages explaining that “small improvements of 1% they are barely perceptible facts, but in the long run they can be much more significant ». “The difference that small improvements can make is really amazing,” he says.
He continues to emphasize the importance of these small actions: “Frequently we discard small changes because they don’t seem to matter much at a given moment (…) and the trouble is that, if we acquire a slow pace of transformation, it is easier for bad habits to return ». For this reason, he talks about how accumulating many “false in false” (that 1% of which the author speaks), can end in leading to a serious problem; in the same way, a small change in our habits “can lead our lives to a completely different destination.”
One of the tips that the author gives to determine what habits will help change our routines for the better, is create a “habit log”. “We need to apply a system of pointing and naming in our daily lives; To create your own log, make a list of your daily habits: wake up, turn off the alarm, check the phone, go to the bathroom … », recommends Clear. Once this is done, we must see if we consider each habit good, bad or neutral.
The author explains that, as we complete our registration, no changes are necessary, since the goal is to recognize what is happening. «Take note of the facts as if you were analyzing someone else, don’t blame yourself for your mistakes or praise yourself for your successes, “he notes and adds:” The first step in identifying bad habits is to be vigilant to identify them. “
Tips for creating a new habit
To start acquiring these new “positive” habits, the writer leaves a few tips:
– The most important thing is to make this change “obvious”.
– The most common signals to establish it are specify a specific time and space where to develop this new habit.
– The formula To implement this new habit in our life is: A new behavior + a specific time + always the same place.
– The accumulation of habits It is a strategy that you can use to integrate a new habit with one that you already practice.
To finish, James Clear gives advice so that, once the new healthy habits are achieved, not to lose ourselves and be able to maintain them. On the one hand, he says that “the feeling of progressing is one of the most satisfying that we can get to feel.” Remember that it is important to «not break the chain and keep a continuous streak that doesn’t stop“Just as we should never stop” doing something twice “:” If you stop doing your habit one day, get back on track as quickly as possible. ”