Atomic Habits - James Clear

2020 Reading Challenge

August 24, 2020

Book 60 - Atomic Habits
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.

Ready, Set, Go!

"It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready.
I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything.
There’s almost no such thing as ready.
There’s only now.
And you may as well do it now.
I mean, I say that confidently as if I’m about to go bungee jumping or something — I’m not.
I’m not a crazed risk taker.
But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any."
–Hugh Laurie (source)

What does it mean to be ready? Are we talking about time? Are we talking about preparation? Are we talking about skills?

What are we waiting for? Waiting to be ready.

As Hugh Laurie says... perhaps we are never fully ready. And if we are never ready, how many things in our life never get accomplished. How many songs never get sung, because we're not ready. Or the song's not ready. How many books don't get written, because we're not ready. Or the book's not ready.

I could wander through my life and convince myself that I am not ready to be a writer. That my book is not ready to see the light of day. That my musings are not ready to be posted on this blog.

The thing is... if all we do is dither around getting ready... but never approach the starting line, never get Set, and never Go... all that preparation is worse than useless. It's in the going that races are run. It's in the going that we have experiences.

To simply prepare and prepare, in order to get ready, but to never go... is as if we were always preparing for a trip, but never actually leaving the house. I'm not quite ready to go on that trip yet. I might be ready tomorrow... or maybe next week... or next month...

But next week doesn't exist. Nor does tomorrow. Nor does the next second. Until you experience it. And then it is gone. Each moment is a gift. It comes whether we are ready or not. The truth is... I am not the best judge of myself. I am in fact an extremely harsh critic of my myself and my writing. If I listened to myself, I'd never publish a single word. I'd probably never put a single word to paper.

Which is why these words gave me pause to think...

"It’s not your job to tell yourself no.
It’s not your job to reject yourself or grade yourself
or debate the value or worthiness of your ideas.
Your job is to create.
Your job is to share.
Your job is to overcome fear and run the race.

Yes, if you build something people might judge it or dislike it.
But if you don’t create and share the things that you have inside of you,
then you’ll commit the far worse crime of rejecting yourself.
You can either be judged because you created something
or ignored because you left your greatness inside of you."
–James Clear (source)

I suppose... in the light of that... I'd rather be judged than ignored. My job is to create, to write, to share. Because it lies within me and calls to be released and expressed.

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.

–Oliver Wendell Holmes