Atomic Habits

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Table of contents:

What are habits?

Jason Hreha writes: “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.”

There are 3 layers that make us what we are:

Identity meaning from Latin: essentitas (being) & identidem (repeateadly). Your identity is your repeated beingness.


The outcome is what you get, the process is what you do, and identity is what you believe.


Although we usually attempt to be outcome-oriented, our best bet in changing is to make identity-based habits change (Translation: It’s much easier to start to believe you are the kind of person you want to become and to embody the habits that a person would have).


The biggest most lasting change doesn’t come from saying you have a goal and that’s why you’re gonna do / not do something, but rather from identifying yourself with something else, with a specific version, a specific type of person built on virtues of your choosing.


The biggest roadblock to change at any level (individual, team, society) is identity conflict. The biggest reason we might fail in achieving a goal is likely because we won’t believe we’re the kind of person that would do that, so we won’t be doing the actions to get us there.


As such, before we do start to build anything, we must first decide what we want to build towards. For this, I highly encourage you to review this life management workshop I prepared for you to decide who you want to become. [Link will be added at a later time]

At the simplest level, decide who you want to be (individual, team, organization, nation) by defining what you stand for, what your principles and values are and what you wish to become.


Any behaviour that isn’t congruent with the self, will simply not last. It’s an enormous difference between “I want this” and “I am this”.


Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. In the same way, investing money compounds in more dividends, the same way habits build up a better output.


It doesn’t matter what exactly your success is right now, but rather the path those small choices will lead to. Outcomes are merely lagging measures of your habits. Don’t measure yourself on today’s apparent results. You will likely see the real results of your labour not after 1 week of gym, but rather in a matter of months and years.


The sad part is that since it’s so hard to see the change happen at the moment, it’s really simple to indulge in bad habits. 1% deficits here and there will one day lead to a huge ass problem further down the road. Just because it’s 1% (either towards betterment or the other way, doesn’t mean it’s insignificant by any means).

If you’re having trouble changing, it’s not you, it’s your systems. We don’t raise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.


All habits are like votes/suggestions: Maybe THIS is what I actually want to be. Each day we make millions of votes (through our decisions & habits) for the kind of person we decide to be.


Habits are both small and mighty. They are the atoms, the building blocks, of all areas of our lives. We are both merely a cumulation of habits, while at the same time habits seem so insignificant, likely nothing of great significance will change day by day if we don’t do them.


The simplest decision-making tool of all, under the context of any habit, is: “What would a [insert character trait] person do?”

The mechanism of habits

Jason Zweig noted, “Obviously you’re never going to just work out without conscious thought. But like a dog salivating at a bell, maybe you start to get antsy around the time of day you normally work out.”

Habit formation has 4 clear steps:

Habits do not require conscious attention to activate. That’s both a blessing and a curse at the same time.


A habit is technically an automated action that has been done and repeated so many times it becomes automatic.

Identity results from habits. We don’t snap our fingers and decide to be something else, to micro-evolve bit by bit towards who we want to be.


Most of us will believe we lack motivation, when in reality what we really lack is clarity of habit execution.


Habits are in reality freedom creators. People with the least amount of habits have the least amount of actual real-life freedoms to focus their energy on the things that really matter.


Breakthrough moments are the result of imperceiveable moments. Cancer spends 80% of its life undetectable, the same way our success habits have a long time before they actually start creating outputs.

Building habits

Simplest action plan:

The cue (more often than not) is not really a particular thing, but rather a particular context.


Behaviour is a function of a Person and Environment [B=f(P,E)]. Translation: We will act according to who we believe we are and the context we will find ourselves in.


The highest sensory activity of all is our vision and our behaviour is closely dictated by what we see in our environment. The good thing is that we can architect what our environment actually is.


The fastest way to create new habits is to change your environment. If you take nothing away from this whole article, environmental change is the fastest most actionable possible habit change.


Making an implementation intention (a plan on how and when and where to execute the habit) is simply more likely to keep doing that habit.

How to make sure any habit will actually be enforced: Write down on paper (and add to your calendar) how you plan to execute the habit "I will do [HABIT] on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE]." 


Think most of all about the cue. When trying to build a habit, make sure the cue is clear and as irresistible to start as possible.


We mostly decide on what to do next based on what we’ve been doing so far. The act of intentionally connecting one action to another is called “habit stacking”. (Ex: We don’t even consider it, but we already have the habit of flossing right after washing our teeth. The activity of driving as a whole is formed of stacked habits such as signalling, steering and pressing the pedals, etc.).


The habit stacking formula: After I do [HABIT 1] I will [HABIT 2].


The most important thing when it comes to habit stacking is to choose the correct cue to start off the next action. 


The important thing to remember is that the most useful cue we could ever have is another habit (Ex: If I want to make writing a habit, and habit stack it with making coffee, then I would leave my laptop next to the coffee machine. As soon as the habit of making a cup of coffee in the morning is executed, with time and practice it will instantly cue the next habit of grabbing the laptop to start writing).


If you’re not sure when to begin to act, try the begging of something (start of the week, month, year, etc.) Any start will be helpful to ensure that we do start.


If you’re yet to notice actual progress, it’s likely not your problem, but rather the fact that you just need to keep holding your habits until you get over the breakthrough moment. (At some point it will no longer require any bit of effort to start, activate and do your habit because it will have become mundane, it will have become very simply a part of who you are and how your life looks like each and every day).

Habits & changes

Carl Jung said: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Changing habits is hard because we’re either changing the wrong thing, or we’re attempting to change in the wrong manner.


Habits will always be easier to change in a new environment. Always start the change by shifting your environment (where you are, the layout of your room, the space in your room, the place things are stored, where you leave your stuff at the end of a habit to cue the next habit, etc.).


Attempt as much as humanly possible NOT TO combine behaviour context. Keep things as separate as possible. Have rooms for specific purposes, or specific spots in your house for specific reasons. You can even go as far as having devices for specific purposes (Ex: I only use the tablet to read, or I only use that one table to sit down and make sense of my thoughts, etc.).


The people who have better willpower don’t actually have more willpower, they just use it less. They’ve created an environment that’ll push them automatically to the right decisions, without them needing to do anything about it.

In the long term, your best bet with keeping a habit active is to manage your environment (both socially and physically) in such a manner as to sustain the kind of behaviours you want to maintain. 


Birds of a feather will flock together, but also the birds that flock together will become of a feather. Your best bet (in life) is to decide to put yourself in environments that’ll be sure to steer you into habitually being the kind of person that’ll get you where you want to end up.


Be the person who does the thing. Become the embodiment of the identity and the goals will take care of themselves.