Atomic Habits Book Exploration By Laurie Hawkins

1. ATOMIC HABITS
By James Clear
BOOK EXPLORATION
By Laurie Hawkins

2. THE POWER OF 1% GAINS
The idea is: if you can become 1% better every day for 1 year, you’ll end up 37 times
better than you were at the beginning of the year. On the other hand, if you become
1% worse every day, you will reach level 0. Habits define your trajectory and future
outcomes.
“With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. With better habits,
anything is possible.”
THE COMPOUND EFFECT
Habits are hard to change because it takes time for the results to be visible. Often,
we make changes, fail to see the results and quickly slide back into our old routines
You must stick to your daily actions and habits to cross the plateau of Latent
Potential. The key is to keep going until you reach that tipping point.

3. There are three levels of change: outcome, process, and identity. While all three are
important, the best way to change your habits is from the inside out. Focus on the
person you wish to become rather than the desired outcomes.
Focusing on outcomes alone won’t guarantee success and may even cause
problems.
Goals can reduce happiness because if we don’t reach the target, we self-
sabotage and look at ourselves through the lens of failure.
When we achieve our goals, we tend to relax and break out of the good habits we
created. This creates the yo-yo effect.
When we focus on outcomes, we focus on the symptoms instead of the causes.
For instance, you can clean out a messy car but if you don’t build a new habit, it
will be messy again soon.
3 LEVELS OF CHANGE
“Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs,
and to upgrade and expand your identity.”

4. THE 4 LAWS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
LAW ONE: MAKE IT OBVIOUS/MAKE IT INVISIBLE
Being aware of each time you complete a habit is important. A calendar or other tool
that allows you to cross things off helps to keep you accountable. This can be as
simple as a paper calendar or an iPhone app.
LAW TWO: MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE/MAKE IT UNATTRACTIVE
We like rewards. It gives us a little dopamine hit that excites our brain when we
accomplish something. It’s why every like you get on Facebook and/or the bonus you
get playing Candy Crush keeps us hooked! Our brain gets a little positive “buzz” from
it. Clear shows how we can use this to our advantage. Do you have a favourite series
on Netflix? Tell yourself you can only watch the next episode after you have gone to
the gym!

5. LAW THREE: MAKE IT EASY/MAKE IT HARD
THE 4 LAWS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
This section covers the environment, automation, and decreasing the number of steps to start a
habit. It’s about making habits so easy that you couldn’t not do them! Using the habit mentioned
above of ‘five push-ups,’ you will notice that it’s really a low number. By keeping the habits small,
you’re more likely to start… that’s the hardest part of habits. Once you’ve done five, you can do
more, but it’s better to do five push-ups a day than fifty push-ups never! The same applies to
anything: you could start by going for a run for five minutes. It’s not long, but the key is to make the
habit first and make it stick.
LAW FOUR: CREATE INSTANT GRATIFICATION/MAKE IT UNSATISFYING
Our brains like to know they will be rewarded for our efforts, and knowing we’re progressing is a
great way to help our brain see what we’ve done. There’s a story attributed to the comedian Jerry
Seinfeld when someone asked him how he got so good at writing comedy. According to the story,
Seinfeld said that he wrote comedy every single day and would mark a cross on a calendar to show
his progress. Effectively, he was building a chain as each cross connected to the next. His aim was
to never break that chain. Imagine looking back at a week, month, or year of crosses: knowing that
each repetition contributed to your new knowledge and skills.