Thread by @itstheASK

125 Tweets of Notes and Insights from @JamesClear #AtomicHabits . This is for sure among the top 5 books ever written on #Habits . Must buy for people looking for the complete picture. Unroll the #Thread

1. The author believed he could become a great player. And he knew that if things were going to improve, he was the one responsible for making it happen

2. A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.

3. The author believes that by following habits he was able to fulfill his potential and believes that the concepts in this book can help you fulfill your potential as well.

4. The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our habits

5. Quote from Naval Ravikant in the Book “ If you want to write the book you must first become the book.

6. The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits—cue, craving, response, and reward—and the four laws of behavior change that evolve out of these steps” This borrows from another great book- The #PowerOfHabit by CharlesDuhgg

7. The book offers a framework as an integrated model of cognitive and behavioral science. The unique thing about the model is it combines both external and internal stimuli- something no previous model has done

8. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.

9. 1% BETTER EVERY DAY Leads to
1% worse every day for one year. 0.99365 = 00.03
1% better every day for one year. 1.01365 = 37.78

10. 1% Improvement impact on a scale of 1 Year.

11. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

12. Improving a small percentage daily is a difficult concept to be appreciated in daily life.

13. It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success.

14. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

15. Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. . You get what you repeat.

16. Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

17. Positive compounding: Productivity compounds, relationships compound, Knowledge compounds.

18. Negative compounding: Stress compounds, Negative thoughts compound, outrage compounds.

19. Breakthrough moments are often results of many previous actions which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.

20. The wrong thinking: I’ve been running every day for a month, so why can’t I see any change in my body? Because you haven’t broken the Plateau of latent potential.

21. Complaining about not getting what you want despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. ( Ice melts at 32 degrees)

22. Mastery requires patience.

23. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. Goal: To win a business deal. System: How to recruit right guys, build team, culture, create presentations and finally execute the plan.

24. So the question: If we focus only on systems will the goal be still achieved. Well, yes, as per “ The score takes care of itself"

25. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.

26. 4 Problems with Goals
Winners and Losers both have the same goals ( All want to win Championships/ goals)
Achieving a goal is momentary change.
Goals restrict your happiness
Goals are at odds with long-term progress

27. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

28. Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons:
We try to change the wrong thing and
We try to change our habits in the wrong way.

29. Three layers of Habit change
1: Outcomethe: losing weight, changing Job, publishing the blog post
2: Processes:implementing a new routine to achieve the set goals
3: Identity:Changing your beliefs, your worldview, your self-image your judgment about others and yourself.

30. Problem is people tend to move from Outcome to Identity, while real Habit change happens from Identity to Outcome. i.e you first change your belief and worldview, then change the process to get the outcome.

31. So basically, there are outcome based Habits or Identity-based habits. The core system and rules in both are fundamentally different.

32. Habits that don’t last are the habits which are opposing to Identity vs Outcome. Ex: If you are someone who loves spending money, your core habit is based on the outcome to spend money, thus it will be very hard for you to change it to earn money.

33. The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.

34. The more pride you have in a particular type of your identity the more motivated you will be to maintain those habits.

35. True behavior change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.

36. Our behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity.

37. Your identity is the story you repeat to yourself. Ex: When you say- I am not a morning person, I am always late, I am bad with building relationships, all this become part of your identity.

38. The biggest barrier to positive change at any level—individual, team, society—is identity conflict.

39. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.

40. The word identity was originally derived from the Latin words essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly.

41. Each habit not only gets results but also teaches you something far more important: to trust yourself.

42. The simple Two steps process to changing the habits
Decide the type of person you want to be.
Prove it to yourself with small wins.

43. Answer for yourself this: “What do you want to stand for? What are your principles and values? Who do you wish to become?

44. A friend lost over 100 pounds by asking herself, “What would a healthy person do?” All day long, she would use this question as a guide. Would a healthy person walk or take a cab?

45. Lesson: If she acted like a healthy person long enough, eventually she would become that person.

46. The first step is not what or how, but who.

47. Thorndike Learning process: “Behaviors followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and those that produce unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated”

48. The process of Habit formation ( from even early age) begins with trial and error.

49. The feedback loop behind every human behavior “try, fail, learn, try differently

50. Jason Hreha writes, “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment"

51.1/2. 4 fundamental steps to the process of building habit
Problem Phase
Cue- Trigger to the brain to initiate a behaviour - basically with little information on reward
Cravings- the motivational force behind every habit. An important thing to note: We don’t crave the habit

51. 2/2Ex: We crave for the relief post smoke not the need to smoke itself
Solution Phase
Response: The actual habit that we perform. Its about obtaining the reward.
Reward: This has two purpose A. Satisfy the craving. B. Teach us which actions are worth remembering.

52. If a behavior is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit.

53. To tackle the 4 steps to Habit formation: The 4 laws of Good Habit formation
“The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious.
The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive.
The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy.
The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying.

54. The 4 laws of Bad Habit elimination
Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible.
Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive.
Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult.
Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying.

55. Our habits are shaped by the systems in your life.

56. Carl Jung said “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

57. The first step to changing bad habits is to be on the lookout for them.

58. The Habits Scorecard is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behavior.

59. Implementation intention which is a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act and the two most common cues of Implementation intention are time and location.

60. The format for creating an implementation intention is: When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.

61. People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through.

62. The simplest way to act is : filling out this “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

63. Ex: “Meditation. I will meditate for one minute at 7 a.m. in my kitchen. Studying. I will study Spanish for twenty minutes at 6 p.m. in my bedroom. Exercise. I will exercise for one hour at 5 p.m. at my local gym.

64. How to use implementation intention in life: Stanford professor BJ Fogg and it is a strategy referred to as habit stacking” After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” i.e say “Meditation. After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute”

65. The tendency for one purchase to lead to another one has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.”

66. To build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.

67. Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention. Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.

68. Remove ambiguity: Instead of “When I take a break for lunch, I will do ten push-ups. Which is unclear, say “When I close my laptop for lunch, I will do ten push-ups next to my desk

69. Don't use words- Eat More, Read More, Work more. They are good intended but will never turn into the habit.

70. People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are.”The environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.

71. In 1936- psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote a simple but powerful equation: “B = f (P,E)” which states that Behaviour is a function of people in the environment.

72. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight. For this reason, a small change in what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do”“Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.

73. Our behavior is not defined by the objects in the environment but by our relationship to them.

74. Shift the thinking- “Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships” Because habits are contextual.

75. One space, one use.” This strategy works perfectly to give you cue to a particular habit.“Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.

76. Once you notice something, you begin to want it. “Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one and in fact never lets you remove the bad habit.

77. Junk food puts our reward system into a frenzy. After spending 100's of years trying to foraging for food in wild, our brain places high value for dense foods, salt sugar, and fat. Why: coz when you don’t know when the next food will come,eat as much as possible for survival.

78. Though today we live in a calorie-rich environment still our brain continue to give the signal and crave for it as it is scarce.

79. The modern food industry relies on stretching our Paleolithic instincts beyond their evolutionary purpose.

80. Society is filled with highly engineer versions of reality that are more attractive than the world our ancestors evolved in- to make our instincts go wild.

80. a Stores sell more clothes - by making Mannequins with exaggerated hips and breast.

80. b Social media gets repeated logins by delivering more likes and praise in a few minutes than we can get in our office

80. c. Online porn splices together stimulating scenes that are impossible to replicate in real life.

81. Dopamine driven feedback loop: Dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it. Gamblers get dopamine right before placing the bet ( not after they win).

82. As an adult, daydreaming about an upcoming vacation can be more enjoyable than actually being on vacation. This is known as Wanting vs Liking reward.

83. The wanting center in the brain is large - while the liking centres are much smaller- known as hedonic spots. Also, 100% nucleus accmbens is activated during wanting and only 10% during liking.

84. Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. Craving—> leads to —>Response

85. Temptation building: Named after David Premack ( Professor)- “ more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors”.

86. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.

87. ABC classic strategy to use “Temptation building” to drive viewership. Every Thursday night, they realized either couples or women by themselves want to sit down and escape & have fun and drink red wine and have popcorn

88. ABC associated the thing they needed viewers to do ( watch their shows) with activities their viewers already wanted to do ( relax drink wine eat popcorn.)

89. Over time, people started connecting ABC with feeling relaxed and entertained. Because- 8: 00 PM Every Thursday = Relaxation and Entertainment.

90. We don’t choose our earliest habits, we imitate them. The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives- from the rule of seductive pull of social norms.

91. We imitate the habits of the three groups in particular - 1. The Close, 2. The Many. 3. The Powerful.

92. The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual.

93. The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us. We tend to adopt habits which are praised and approved by our culture because of our desire to fit in and belong.

94. Habits are modern day solutions to ancient desires. The key insight: There are many different ways to address the same underlying motive. One person may smoke to reduce stress, other may go for the run.

95. The current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve problems you face, but are just the methods you learned to use.

96. Desire is the difference between where you are now and where you want to be in the future.

97. Reframe your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and easy way to reprogram your brain.

98. @EdLatimore “Odd realization” using the cue of headphones to increase focus and concentration.

99. If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. People get ultra-focused on figuring out the perfect plan, perfect meal etc rather than doing.

100. How long will it take to build a habit? It's not time its frequency. The focus should be to take action and not being in motion.

101. The curve of Effortful practice to automatic behavior, is known as automaticity curve.

102. Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Maybe if we really wanted it, we actually do it, but the truth is our real motivation is to be lazy and do what is convenient.

103. The law of least effort: which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work

104. Addition by subtraction: Removing every part of friction in the process to get better output. Ex: taking the gym on route to work, tying up room to become more productive etc.

105. Create an environment where doing the right ( add cues for it) is as easy as possible ( remove everything that can give cue for bad habits). Scale down your habit to the two-minute version of itself ( from reading before bed every night to reading 1 page every night)

106. Over time you will realize that success is less about making good habits easy but about making bad habits hard.

107. Fourth and final law: make it satisfying. Like the mint taste after doing the brush early morning.

108. Why would someone smoke if they know it increases the risk of lung cancer? overeat when they know it increases their risk of obesity? have unsafe sex if they know it can result in STD? Because of brain priorities basis rewards and not the consequence.

109. So more immediate the pleasure the more quicker is the action and the habit.

110. Jerry Seinfeld in documentary Comedian tells that his goal is “don't break the chain”. He doesn’t care, if the jokes are good or bad, he just ensures he is writing every day.

111. You can use habit contract- by having an accountability partner who can make you responsible for the outcome thus track you.

112. Genes do not determine your destiny, they determine your area of opportunity. So the idea is to direct efforts towards area you enjoy and which match natural skills.

113. The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.

114. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

115. The greatest threat to success is not the failure but boredom

116. Creating two reports can be very effective to better life. Annual Review Report 1: Reflection. Annual report 2: Integrity report

117. Reflection Report consists of asking three questions
What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn?

118. In an yearly integrity report ask yourself 3 questions
What are the core values that drive my life and work?
How am I living and working with integrity right now?
How can I set higher standards in future?

119. We can only be rational and logical after we have been emotional.

120. Reward is on the other side of sacrifice.

121. Our expectations determine our satisfaction.

122. Wisdom being Seneca’s favourite quote: “Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more” Satisfaction = Liking – Wanting

123. Suffering drives progress

124. The pain of failure correlates to the height of expectation

125. Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into the problem.