James Clear
Hah. So much for my great plans for restarting this reading challenge... interrupted first in 2017 and now, again, after a month in 2020. Ah well... Two things happened. One, the library couldn't quite keep up with my reading requirements and I've had to wait for books to arrive via their hold system. And, more importantly, two... once again, while the reading (50 pages/day) is definitely doable... reading and taking notes and then reading the notes and crafting a coherent blog about what I had read... every day... was a bit too much. I was spending 2-3 hours on this book reading/blogging challenge and that, unfortunately, is just too much. Sooo... back to the drawing board. I have been reading... just not taking notes... so these remaining 2020 book blogs are going to be more scattered and just a one blog post/book deal. Sometimes, things just have to shift.
Sooo... Atomic Habits. It came out in 2018 and I heard about it then because I follow James Clear on his blog. I put my name down on the hold list at the library and... voila... two years later, I received a copy of the book. It's very good and there are lots of little tidbits I could share but... the big takeaway is that habits are not so much driven my goals as they are about identity. I want to lose 20 lbs... that's a goal. But... far better is to alter my identity... I am the person who walks every day and chosen a whole-food, plant-based diet. That's who I am and that, then, makes everything else fall into place. The weight then just comes off as a side-effect of the altered identity.
Clear also laid out the four steps in habits: Cue, Craving, Response, Reward. Something happens (the cue) and we need to do something (craving) which is followed by us doing that something (response) and then receiving the reward. So... the cue is seeing my toothbrush on the bathroom counter and remembering that I am brushing me teeth in the evenings... which means I then brush my teeth and have the reward of squeaky clean, minty fresh teeth as I go to bed. I am the sort of person who brushes their teeth morning and evening.
Clear also provides some guidance on how to form good habits and alter bad habits. The trick is this:
For Good habits:
Cue - make it obvious - toothbrush on counter - in plain view
Craving - make it attractive - nice toothpaste
Response - make it easy - toothbrush and toothpaste are right there
Reward - make it satisfying - going to bed with squeaky clean teeth
So... seems pretty easy but... it takes a bit of work to figure out what makes something attractive or easy or satisfying. There are lots of aids... like habit stacking and altering your environment, etc.
For Bad habits:
Cue - make it invisible - like not keeping chocolate in the house
Craving - make it unattractive - if I want to buy chocolate, I have to get it from the corner store where it is more expensive
Response - make it hard - I have to leave the house, walk down to the corner store and buy the chocolate there
Reward - make it unsatisfying - the whole process is unsatisfying! And maybe weighing myself before I go...
So... those are the things that stuck with me so far... I also listened to a two hour podcast interview with James Clear which was also quite fascinating and helped reinforce some of the key messages.
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