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Atomic Habits(raw)

Atomic Habits(raw)

by mmustaphak · 130 things on Twos

I'm re-reading atomic habits once again. I want to extract and apply the concepts I've learnt from it.
A habit is a routine or behaviour that is performed regularly and in most cases automatically.
The fundamentals
The surprising power of Atomic Habits
The aggregation of marginal gains: When you breakdown everything that it takes to achieve a goal or complete a task, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a remarkable increase when you put them all together
"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it -- but all that had gone before "
Habits compound over time, Making small improvements on a daily basis can lead to astronomical difference in the long-run.
"It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis"
Habits are the compound interest of self improvement. They multiply as you repeat them.
"Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations"
You should be far more concerned of your trajectory than your current result.
Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits
"You get what you repeat"
Time magnifies the margin between success and failure.
Good habits makes time your ally. Bad habits makes time your enemy.
"That's how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest " -Warren Buffet.
The most powerful outcomes are delayed.
But you know that it's the work you did long ago -when it seemed like you weren't making any progress- that makes the jump today possible.
All big things comes from small beginnings.
Goals are about the result you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
The only way to actually win is to get better each day.
A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time think about your goals and not enough time designing your systems.
Solving problems at the result level only fixes it temporarily. To improve for good, problems need to be solved at the system level.
Fix the input and the outputs fix themselves.
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building system is to continue playing the game.
Chapter Summary
How you Habits Shape your Identity (and Vice Versa)
Outcomes are what you get. Processes are about what you do.
Identity is about what you believe.
Behaviour that is incongruent with the self will not last.
Once your pride get involved, you'll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.
Improvement are only temporary until they become part of who you are.
You behaviours are usually a reflection of you Identity.
self note: The goal is to become not to do.
self note: What beliefs do I hold that is holding me back.
Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with you identity, you will fail to put them to action.
Progress requires unlearning
Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
Your identity is literally your "repeated beingness"
The more evidence you have for a belief, the more strongly you will believe it.
I didn't start out as ____________. I became one through my habits.
The effects of habits get reinforced with time.
Building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself.
meaningful change does not require radical change.
New Identities requires new evidences.
If nothing changes, nothing is going to change.
Simple two step processs: Decide who you want to be Prove it to yourself with small wins.
You habits shape your Identity, and Identity shapes your habits.
let your values, principles and Identity drive the loop rather than your results.
The focus should always be on becoming that kind of person, not getting a particular outcome.
You have the power to change your beliefs about yourself.
You have a choice in every moment.
Quite literally, you become your habits.
Chapter Summary
There are three levels of change: outcome change, process change, and identity change.
The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become;.
Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and upgrade and expand your idenity.
The real reason some habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.
How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps
A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.
Your habits are just a series of automatic solutions that solve problems and stresses you face regularly.
Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experiences.
Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.
Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it.
It's only by making the fundamentals of life easier that you can create the mental space needed for free thinking and creativity.
Building habits is the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future.
The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.
What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers.
Every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state.
Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The thoughts, feelings and emotions of the observer are what transform a cue into a craving.
Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and how much friction is associated with behaviour.
a habit occur only if you are capable of doing it.
The first purpose of rewards is to satisfy a craving. Second, rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector.
Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle.
If a behaviour is insufficient in any of the four stages it will not become a habit.
Without the first three steps, a behaviour will not occur. Without all four, a behaviour will not be repeated.
All behaviour is driven by the desire to solve a problem.
The key to creating good habits and breaking bad ones is to understand and these fundamental laws and how to alter them to your specifications.
habits are shaped by system in your life.
Chapter Summary
A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough time to become automatic.
The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possilbe.
Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response and reward.
The Four Laws of Behaviour Change are simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.
The 1st Law Make it obvious
The Man who Didn't Look Right
The human brain is a prediction machine.
Your ability to notice the relevant cues in a given situation is the foundation for every habit you have.
you don't need to be aware of the cues for the habit to begin.
As habits form, your action comes under the direction of your automatic and nonconscious mind. You fall into old patters before you realise what's happening.
For this reason, we must begin the process of behaviour change with awareness.
"Unit your make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate" - Carl Jung
HABIT SCORE CARD
Point and Calling
This is the process is a ritual of the Japanese railway conductors. They perform a routine check of the trains before, during and after departure of the trains. They do this by pointing at an object and calling it out loud. Like the signal changes to green they point at and say "the signal is green"
Pointing and Calling is so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level by verbalising your actions.
Many of our failures in performance are largely attributable to a lack of self-awareness.
There are not good habits or bad habits. There are only effective habits.
Habits score card
Having trouble determining how to to rate a habit ask yourself
Does this habit help me become the type of person I wish to be?
Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity ?
The first step to changing bad habits is to be on the lookout for them.
Chapter Summary
With enough practice, your brain will pick up on the cues that predict certain outcomes without consciously thinking about it.
Once our habits become automatic, we stop paying attention to what we are doing.
The process of behaviour change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.
The Habit Scorecard is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behaviour.
The best way to Start a New Habit
Implementation Intention: the plan you make beforehand about when and where to act.
The two most common cues are time and location. Implementation Intention leverages both of these cues.
People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through.
Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.
Once an implementation intention has been set, you don't have to wait for inspiration to strike.
Implementation formula: I will [BEHAVIOUR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
We often say yes to little requests because we are not clear enough about what wee need to be doing instead.
The goal is to make the time and location so obvious that, will enough repetition, you get an urge to do the right thing at the right time, even if you can't say why.
HABIT STATCKING: A SIMPLE PLAN TO OVERHAUL YOUR HABITS
Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to addition purchases.
You often decide what to do next based on what you have just finished doing.
No behaviour happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behaviour.
Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.
The habit stacking formula is: "After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]"
The key is to tie your desired behaviour into something you already do each day.
habit stacking allows you to create a set of simples rules that guide your future behaviour.
Habit stacking works best when the cue is highly specific and immediately actionable.
Be specific and clear.
The specificity is important.
The 1st Law of Behaviour Changes is to make it obvious.