Atomic Habits is a very popular book in the self-improvement world. Not sure why, but it took me a while to get my hands on this book and read it. Maybe because I have listened to a lot of podcast interviews with the author so in a sense I knew most of the subject. I will post the link to the podcasts at the end of this post.

Let’s now see more about the book Atomic Habits.

This post is part of the series Learnings from books where my goal is to share what I learned from the book that I read. It is a mixture of review and summary with a bit of my opinion and point of view. But, as reviews, these learnings can say more about me than the book itself, so I trust that you the smart reader will take it with a grain of salt.

Learnings from Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

The book is good but I wouldn’t say excellent, maybe because I already knew some of the subject, and because of that it didn’t sound new to me. While the subject was not new, in the habits world is not knowing that makes a difference, it is putting into practice.

Regarding habit creation, I would say I am average. In my view, I have good ones (I read a lot for example) but also I have bad ones (mostly related to diet). So I found interesting things in the book that I can share here.

Here are my 5 highlights of the book.

Little changes matter

We tend to ignore little changes because in the moment they don’t seem to matter, but in the long run, they do. If you compound any activity by 1% every day, in the long run, it will make a difference.

If you start following a diet, you will probably see the results in a few months (not days). If you start saving money, you will see results in a few years and decades, not in a few months.

True behavior change is identity change

Real change in how you act comes from changing who you are, and your identity. You might begin a new habit because you’re motivated, but you’ll only keep it up if it becomes a natural part of who you are. As the author says, "… the process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself.".

So in order to have effective change, you have to change who you are and the habits will be a result of that.

But identity is a tricky thing. We change over time, so our identity will change as well. So we need to change our identity (and what we want to be) to a flexible one.

A good example of a flexible identity that was provided in the book is the change from “I am an athlete” to “I’m the type of person who is mentally tough and loves physical exercise”. The first one is fixed, and as you grow older you can have an identity crisis as for any reason you cannot identify with that identity anymore. But the second one is more flexible and you can use it your whole life.

Don’t rely on self-control

Trying to exercise self-control is a very expensive task. It burns brain energy and willpower and it makes it easy to fall into the trap. As the author says “​​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.”

To make it easy to not fall into temptation, a good approach is to change the environment so we don’t have the temptation there in the first place.

I personally do that with food. I avoid having unhealthy food at home. Sometimes when I am anxious, tedious, frustrated, or any other strong emotion, I tend to go to to my cabinets and refrigerator. If I only have healthy food at home, I have no choice of eating unhealthy food as I don’t have it.

PS: This is very similar to the “The Ulysses Contract”

Any progress is better than no progress

Sometimes we feel that if we are not making big progress it is not worth it. But for habit creation that is not true. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Going to the gym for 5 minutes is better than not going at all. Saving 5 dollars is better than saving nothing at all.

Few sensations are as gratifying as the sense of moving forward and making progress.

Favorite quotes

These are my 5 favorite quotes from the book.

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run.”

“Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.”

“Put another way, the costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.”

“This is a continuous process. There is no finish line. There is no permanent solution.”

“Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state.”

Other resources

This section is extra and here I compliment the post with content from other sources that resonate with the book.

Tim Ferriss Show Podcast Episode #648: James Clear, Atomic Habits — Simple Strategies for Building (and Breaking) Habits, Questions for Personal Mastery and Growth, Tactics for Writing and Launching a Mega-Bestseller, Finding Leverage, and More: James Clear is a writer and speaker focused on habits and continuous improvement. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller.

WorkLife with Adam Grant Podcast Episode Building atomic habits with James Clear: As a blogger and executive coach, James Clear spent years studying how to form and change habits. His research culminated in the book “Atomic Habits”, which has sold more than 15 million copies and been translated into over 50 languages.

Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris Podcast Episode Atomic Habits, James Clear: An athlete as a kid, a devastating sports injury would change James Clear’s life forever. While a sophomore in high school, a baseball bat struck Clear in the face, resulting in massive head trauma. He would need to relearn very basic skills to function as himself again.

These are my learnings from the book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones written by James Clear. A special thanks to Vancouver Public Library (VPL) for allowing access to the book for free.

Happy reading!

Liked this post? Check out other posts part of the series Learnings from books where my goal is to share what I learned from the book that I read. It is a mixture of review and summary with a bit of my opinion and point of view