Atomic Habits

To write a great book, you must first become the book.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Habits form based on frequency, not time.

The best way to start a new habit is to make it so easy that you can't say no.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.

The True measure of your worth is how you spend your time when it is entirely up to you.

True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking.

Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

Transformations that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

The fatigue of a long trip is forgotten when we reach our destination.

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed?

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.

The inversion of the 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it unattractive. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.

Even if you don’t want to create a full-blown habit contract, simply having an accountability partner is useful.

The sweet spot of desire occurs at a 50/50 split between success and failure.

The most important step is the next one.

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.

Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits. It’s a two-way street.

Obviously you’re never going to just work out without conscious thought. But like a dog salivating at a bell, maybe you start to get antsy around the time of day you normally work out.” - Jason Zweig

Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive. Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive.

Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings. Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

The most effective way to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible is to create commitment devices, automate processes, and use technology to lock in future behavior.

The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.

Don’t blame yourself for your faults. Don’t praise yourself for your successes. If you do this, you can improve yourself.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, ‘The best is the enemy of the good.’

The inversion of the 3rd Law is make it difficult. If you find yourself continually struggling to follow through on your plans, then you can take a page from Victor Hugo and make your bad habits more difficult by creating what psychologists call a commitment device.

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. This is entirely logical. Feelings of pleasure—even minor ones like washing your hands with soap that smells nice and lathers well—are signals that tell the brain: “This feels good. Do this again, next time.” Pleasure teaches your brain that a behavior is worth remembering and repeating.

Great habits are the ladder of success you can climb to the peak of your potential.

The real tragedy of our time is that men fear knowledge.

The most important thing is to make progress, not perfection.

The dots that connect the past and the future are called our habits." - Atomic Habits

Habits are atomic units of behavioral change." - Atomic Habits

In learning to speak a new language, to play on a musical instrument, or to perform unaccustomed movements, great difficulty is felt, because the channels through which each sensation has to pass have not become established; but no sooner has frequent repetition cut a pathway, than this difficulty vanishes; the actions become so automatic that they can be performed while the mind is otherwise engaged.

The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning.

Put that [nuclear] code number in a little capsule, and then implant that capsule right next to the heart of a volunteer.

The key to building good habits is to make them so easy that you can't say no.

The most important thing is to be consistent, even if it's just a little bit, every day.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Once a habit has been encoded, the urge to act follows whenever the environmental cues reappear.

Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one. You may be able to resist temptation once or twice, but it’s unlikely you can muster the willpower to override your desires every time.

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected.

The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least. It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you don’t have to use it very often.

Small habits don’t add up. They compound. That’s the power of atomic habits. Tiny changes. Remarkable results.

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.

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

The 1st Law of Behavior Change is to make it obvious.

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.

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

You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.

Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.

The more tightly bound your new habit is to a specific cue, the better the odds are that you will notice when the time comes to act.

The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to automate your habits.

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

The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.

If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.

The best way to break a bad habit is to make it impractical to do. Increase the friction until you don’t even have the option to act.