By Rob Cooney (@EMEducation)
Atomic Habits
by: James Clear
The military have a saying that, “you don’t rise to the occasion, but fall to the level of your training.” James Clear riffs on this related to personal change, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Thus begins a great book about the role of habits in our day to day lives and the systems we can build to take advantage of these naturally occurring psychological phenomena.
In this book, Clear begins with a thorough discussion of the importance of habits; why they exist, how they form, why they are often tied to our identity stories, and how we can take advantage of habit to truly change our own behavior. From there, he posits 4 “laws” to make habits useful: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisficing. It’s also helpful to note, that the corollary of each can be used to break bad habits. In these sections, he outlines the tactics we can use to build better habits: using cueing, stacking habits together, temptation bundling, one space = one routine (every habit should have a home), the 2-minute rule to new habits, and many more.
I particularly enjoyed the discussions in several sections related to the environment and habit. A few years ago, I moved into a new town. The walkability was markedly better than where I moved from and I started walking more, losing 30 pounds in the process. Needless to say, I can verify that environmental influences can have a profound effect on behavioral change, especially as part of habit creation. Overall, this book is a quick read: lots of stories to pull you in and plenty of pragmatic tips that you can use to build your own habits or intentionally deploy as part of your teaching practice.
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