One Percent Better
I’m sitting in a hotel in Los Angeles and staring at a half empty bottle of Coke Classic on my desk. I didn’t drink it all. I probably won’t. It’s part of a one percent better idea that became a common phrase in my life when I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve been interested in habits since well before I self-published a ebook on the habit of keeping a list of your most important thoughts in a daily journal in early 2016. There seem to be some core habits in the world that if practiced with consistency can greatly improve your life. Your diet, your finances, your physique are all another way of saying your habits. In most ways we are what we do compounded by time. Nothing I’ve read or seen does a better job of putting this into words backed by science that James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits.
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Finding Treasure
Back in the spring of 2022 I was in between books and ran across this one on Amazon. It floated to the top of my recommendations and what caught my eye was the exceptional ratings on the book. I have always enjoyed reading business-building or self-help books in this genre. Knowledge is power and the quest for constant improvement has always seem a worthy path to me. But I just wasn’t looking for a preachy book telling me cheesy ways to get my act together. That being said, it was hard to avoid my jaw dropping at the 4.8 star rating the book had and after over 83,000 reviews. How could this be so wildly popular and it just wasn’t on my radar? This book was clearly making a mark on the world and I didn’t want to miss out.
Looking back, I can see this as a pivotal moment in my 40th year of life. The book has since been added to my “must read for every human” list and sits very near the top. The information and style the author uses to present it is fantastic. You cannot read this book without it altering the way you look at life and what you do from moment to moment. The book is a read and do book. I mean that when you read it, you can immediately understand more of the science behind our habit behaviors and start using those hacks to influence your daily routines. I’ll tell you about some of the things I have changed since reading the book.
The Third Law
To really attach myself to something I need to see it a few times and really think about it. Perhaps that’s why I ended up with the audiobook, ebook, and a hardcover copy of this book. My hardcopy stands vigil on the small table in our TV room. I put the book there to be more accessible. “Making it easy” known as The Third Law in the book, involves intentionally making things easier that you want to be a bigger part of your life. Sitting next to my chair the book is easy to reach. If we pause a movie so someone can take a break, I pick it up and just review something. It’s not that you haven’t heard of this concept, it’s the ridiculously simple organization of these key principles in one book complete with some graphics to really make it easy to understand. With this third law in mind, we have made it a point to make other things around the house more accessible.
Daily Changes
For example, we make it a point to leave washed and ready fruit on our counter or kitchen table in a bowl after breakfast so as the we pass through and need a snack, we grab what’s easy. (i.e. grapes, berries, bananas.) One of our first priorities was to put bookshelves in the kids rooms when moving into our house because books stacked in boxes in a closet can’t get read. Vitamins usually stay on the countertop in the kitchen so we don’t forget them in the morning. When choosing a place in the yard to dig a hole for my pull up bar, I was careful to put it right along the walking path to my shop so that it’s only an extra step to knock a few pull-ups out.
Inversion of the Third Law
There’s also an inversion to this law. “Make it invisible.” We keep candy out of sight and the pantry door closed when possible to avoid eating just because it’s there. I don’t spend lots of time in cake and candy isles at the store because if I do, I have to engage more will power to keep it out of the buggy. I avoid home improvement stores when my budget for home projects is used up for the month. Make something invisible if you want to avoid it.
About the Author
A dropped baseball bat hit James Clear in the face when he was a kid breaking his nose and most bones in his face. This set him back in his baseball career. After a year long recovery, he forced himself to get back in the game with habits and small improvements. This effort set him on a quest to compile todays best science and studies on how we influence our behavior. He has built on the work of others like Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit. In the book Atomic Habits, the message is more clear, the simple explanations in bite sized chunks, and the narrative just flows as a great read. Atomic Habits is an opportunity to learn while having fun at the same time.
Here’s just a few of my favorite quotes from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear
“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits”
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than your current outcomes.”
“Forget about goals, focus on systems instead.”
“You do not rise to the levels of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
“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. “
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. “
“The greatest threats to success is not failure but boredom.”
“And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. “
Should you read this book?
We are all constantly bombarded with life and all its chaos. Work, school, personal obligations, grocery shopping, home projects… the list goes on. Sometimes it seems like we don’t have time for books, especially when we’re worn out at the end of a work day with more left to do. In this case, that’s exactly why the book Atomic Habits matters. These chapters give you the individual power-boost to effect change on a very small and achievable level and as time compounds your efforts, you’ll find that you have even more time to spend on the things you want to do, and more importantly on who you want to be.
For the record, I didn’t finish the Coke. – Brad
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