Book Summary: Atomic Habits
Author: James Clear
Introduction
The book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear was published in October 2018. James Clear is a
successful coach and one of the leading experts on habit formation. In the book, he shows
practical strategies for getting a little better every day at what you set as your goal and
integrating habits into your everyday life.
Aim & Purpose
James Clear has had an impressive past. After he had a bad baseball accident, he made the
decision to take control of his life again and live up to his potential. He did this with: Habits.
In the book he describes with many examples strategies how to implement new habits into
your life, but also how to get rid of bad habits. Many very small and at first sight insignificant
changes can make an enormous difference. It is very important to have good habits that
accompany you in everyday life, because the quality of our entire life ultimately depends on
our habits.
Learnings
James Clear describes that when we have a goal, we should not focus primarily on that, but
on the systems respectively habits that bring us to the goal. We need to create a connection
between these habits and our identity: First you have to choose what kind of person you
want to be and in the second step you have to prove to yourself through your actions that
you have become that person.
To form better habits, you have to follow 4 simple steps. First, make the trigger of the habit
obvious. In the next step, the new behavior of the habit must be made attractive, because
actions stand and fall with the release of dopamine. In the third step, the action must be
easy, so that the habit is repeated as often as possible. In the fourth step, the habit must be
made more satisfying, because if we feel good afterwards, we will repeat the habit and
integrate it fast.
It is the small changes that bring success in the end. We must be patient and continuously
integrate new habits. In the presentation they summarized it quite well and the sentence
stayed in my head: “Habits shape our lives.” - We are enormously controlled by our habits,
but we can influence and change them.
