Over the years, like many people, I have made multiple resolutions to create a healthy and productive habit only to end up failing. After reading the Atomic Habit, author James Clear makes it clear that the reason we fail to develop these habits is because we do not follow the four laws of Behaviour change. We fail to make our new behaviour ''Obvious, Easy, Attractive and Satisfying.''Failing to abide by any one of these laws, means you will fail to adopt a new behaviour.
What this means is, the next time you make an effort to go the gym you have to be aware that if you do not post obvious cue's like setting a reminder on your phone,or writing it down on a to-do list, you may not be inclined to follow up on that routine till it becomes a habit. Furthermore, if you make going to the gym a hassle or constantly complain about it being strenuous, you will not find it easy or attractive. And finally, if on a day to day basis you got more satisfaction from going to the bar with your friends than going to the gym that would mean that the act of working out wasn't satisfying enough to pull you away from other activities.
After reading Atomic Habits, I found two powerful strategies that can make every new habit obvious, easy, attractive and satisfying, so that you can become a happier, healthier and a more productive person.
Stack and Start:
The first strategy for developing a habit is called the stack and start. This is a strategy where you attach a new habit to a habit you already have. For eg: When I wanted to start the habit of flossing my teeth, I would grab my floss stick and floss one tooth as soon as I finished brushing my teeth. In this strategy, you use an old habit to trigger a new habit. Over time, my brain learnt that as soon as I was done brushing, I needed to floss my teeth. Thus, I managed to stack a habit on another habit.
When you stack habits, you are using the momentum of the old habit to make the new habit easier to initiate. This strategy makes the cue of the new behaviour obvious and it makes the requirements of the new behaviour easy.
Sync and Score:
Secondly, To make a new behaviour attractive and satisfying you need to synchronize and score. What this means is, you need to synchronize something you enjoy doing with a new habit. For eg: If I enjoy listening to a certain type of music, and I listen to it only when I am doing a certain workout, I will eventually look forward to doing the workout.
James Clear says ''if you only allow yourself to enjoy all your favourite experiences while you execute a healthy and productive new habit, you'll find the new habit is something you actually look forward to doing.''
Syncing is a great hack for habit building but to make a habit stick you must make the habit satisfying and you want to do that you must keep score.
Scoring let's us know how far we have come and motivates us to keep going in the long run. After a month of workout, how satisfying is it to see a calendar full of red ticks that indicated a successful work-out five times a week. The calendar is a visual proof that you are someone that cares about your health and you should take pride in that. It acts as a score card and let's you stick to your new habit.
Everytime you write, you are a Writer
Everytime you play an instrument, you are a Musician
Everytime you exercise, you are an Athlete
So when you stack new habits to old habits, and sync new habits with things you enjoy and keep score, you will be able to finally make that resolution a habit.
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the book Atomic Habits. Please share your thoughts down in the comments below. If you have a recommendation, please let me know. Bye for now.
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