Atomic Habits

The significance of developing positive habits and conquering irrational concerns is emphasised in Seth Godin's keynote speech for his book Linchpin. One of the most well-known habit researchers, James Clear is a former baseball player whose blog, JamesClear.com, reaches millions of people. Atomic Habits, his debut novel, shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

James Clear outlines three things that can help you break poor behaviours and start positive ones:

1. A four-step pattern—cue, craving, reaction, and reward—is always executed whenever we carry out a habit.

2.Second, in order to establish new habits, we need to make them appealing, simple, straightforward, and rewarding.

3. Keeping tabs on your habits with a fun tool will help you stay on track and measure your progress.

A four-step pattern—cue, craving, reaction, and reward—forms the basis of all habits. To paraphrase Adam Smith's now-famous 1776 remark, "Workers naturally maximise their own society's welfare," the environment acts as an invisible hand that influences people's actions. A stimulus is necessary to initiate any habit, according to James, because the environment is the "invisible hand" that influences human behaviour.

James develops four rules of behaviour change from the four-step pattern he offers; each law corresponds to one part of the loop. All sorts of positive routines, such as going for runs, completing side projects, increasing quality time with loved ones, etc., can be governed by these rules. On the flip side, it is possible to make harmful behaviours invisible, ugly, unpleasant, and unsatisfying.

A simple and entertaining method to make sure you maintain your new habits is to use a habit tracker. Creating and breaking habits becomes enjoyable with this framework, but it's crucial to avoid taking on too much at once. Using a habit tracker is a simple approach to hold yourself responsible without letting yourself get overwhelmed.

The basic premise is to make a list of all the habits you wish to form or break, and then at the end of each day, tick off the ones you managed to do. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld used to mark his calendar with a huge 'X' every day that he came up with a joke. This practice, frequently referred to as the Seinfeld productivity hack, is the basis for this method.

If you want to live a better and more satisfying life, these lessons will help you break negative habits and build good ones.