“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement”
James Clear
I decided to read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, towards the end of 2023 to help set myself up for success in 2024.
During the last quarter of 2023, I seemed to have broken away from some of my good habits that I’d pretty much maintained for the first half of the year – I needed to get back on track!
James Clear sets out a framework for creating good habits and moving away from bad ones.
What I liked most about this book, was that it’s written in such a way that I related to the real-life examples he gave, meaning it became easily transferable to my lifestyle and goals.
The focus is on how tiny changes in behaviour can result in new habits forming which then leads to big things happening.
In the book, Clear sets out the ‘laws’ in four principles: cue, craving, response, and reward, making it a very useful and practical book. He introduces the two-minute rule, meaning a new habit should take less than two minutes to do. This rule makes it as easy as possible to fit the new habit into your lifestyle and gives you small, quick wins to build momentum into the bigger gains.
I enjoyed reading about the science behind how you remove bad habits. Being an ex-smoker, I related entirely with the example of why you continue to smoke and that gave me the confidence I needed to know I could use this technique to shape my success.
The advice Clear provides goes further than the book itself as there are practical tools you can access to help with forming your good habits, so it really does keep giving beyond your initial purchase.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with maintaining their focus to achieve their goals.
