Book recommendation – Atomic Habits by James Clear

Did you make any resolution for the year 2020 and failed to incorporate it into your daily life routine?

 

Are you planning to make a resolution for the coming year 2021 and don’t want to fail this time in implementing it?

Then this article is for you.

Many times, we have picked New Year’s resolution to build a healthy and productive habit. However, more than half of all resolutions fail because they are not the right resolutions. In addition, a resolution may be wrong for one of three main reasons: It is a resolution created based on what someone else (or society) is telling you to change. It is too vague. You do not have a realistic plan for achieving your resolution.

In other terms, many times we fail to make our new behavior obvious, easy, attractive, and satisfying. These are what author James Clear calls The 4 Laws of Behaviour Change. Failing to abide
by anyone these laws means you will fail to adopt a new behavior. So what to do in order to make every new habit obvious, easy,
attractive, and satisfying?

 


Strategy 1: (Make it obvious) Do not hide your candies in your refrigerator, put them on the table.


Strategy 2: (Make it attractive) Always try to get your favorite candy that you always like to eat.

Strategy 3: (Make it easy) It is always preferred to get a box of candies where you can pick one of them and have it instantly. Do not buy individual candy that is wrapped up. It takes time to unwrap and having it later.


Strategy 4: (Make it satisfying) If you like the candy you picked, you will love eating it and feel happy and satisfied.

Now start applying this to the habits that you want to build this year like hitting the gym daily, cycling for long hours, running till you get your required fitness, reading a book and completing it in a week, studying every day, etc.

Now every time when you perform a habit, try to execute it in a four-step pattern: cue, craving, response, reward. These are the four steps that the author tells us about how a habit is generated or formed. In simple terms, consider a situation where you placed your cell phone on the table and you are resting on your couch.

Suddenly, the messages start popping up continuously. This can be termed as a cue. Now, you really want to read the message. That is carving. You get an urge that makes you stand on your couch and reach your table to read the message. This is the response. Finally, you see the notification and found out that your girlfriend/ boyfriend was messaging you and you get the happiness after reading the message. That is a reward. Now how to implement the four-step pattern i.e. cue, craving, response, reward in your daily life by making studying as a habit.

Strategy 1: (Cue) Start placing the book that you want to study today in a visible area such as in your study table, bed, sofa, and do not place anything else. Make this thing clear that this is the one that I want to complete today.


Strategy 2: (Craving) Keep a bookmark that helps not only to get to the page immediately that you were reading before but also notifies you that how much you have completed or yet to complete. 


Strategy 3: (Response) Try to make the book easily accessible and do not place it anywhere where you have to search for it every time. This not only makes your work easy but also saves you from getting frustrated while searching for the book and later lose the motivation for studying.


Strategy 4: (Reward) Finally, after completing a book, reward yourself with your favorite candy. Selecting the proper habit is to discover the matter, the book positions that not all habits suit you. Folks tend to shattered themselves if they can’t get a habit right but, with the proper
activity, you are doing more, the more you are doing the more it becomes a habit. Hence, Atomic Habits is the definitive guide to break bad behaviors and adopt good ones in four steps, showing you how small, incremental, everyday routines compound and add up to massive,
positive change over time.

 


Book review by our team member Prem S Mishra