Atomic Habits Chapter Conclusion: The secret to results that last

 There is an ancient Greek parable known as the Sorites Paradox, which talks about the effect one small action can have when repeated enough times. One formulation of the paradox goes as follows: Can one coin make a person rich? If you give a person a pile of ten coins, you wouldn't claim that he or she is rich. But what if you add another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him or her so.

We can say the same about atomic habits. Can one tiny change transform your life? It's unlikely you would say so. But what if you made another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change.

The holy grail of habit change is not a single 1 percent improvement, but a thousand of them. It's a bunch of atomic habits stacking up, each one a fundamental unit of the overall system.

Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine.

Small habits don't add up. They compound.

Atomic Habits Chapter 20: The downside of creating good habits

 The downside of creating good habits

However, the benefits of habits come at a cost. At first, each repetition develops fluency, speed, and skill. But then, as a habit becomes automatic, you become less sensitive to feedback. You fall into mindless repetition. It becomes easier to let mistakes slide. When you can do it "good enough" on autopilot, you stop thinking about how to do it better.

The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors. You assume you're getting better because you're gaining experience. In reality, you are merely reinforcing your current habits -- not improving them. In fact, some research has shown that once a skill has been mastered there is usually a slight decline in performance over time.

However, when you want to maximize your potential and achieve elite levels of performance, you need a more nuanced approach. You can't repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional. Habits are necessary, but not sufficient for mastery. What you need is a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice.

Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery

Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a tiny element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to advance to the next frontier of your development. Old tasks become easier the second time around, but it doesn't get easire overall because now you're pouring your energy into the next challenge. Each habit unlocks the next level of performance. It's an endless cycle. The solution? Establish a system for reflection and review.

Reflection and review is a process that allows you to remain conscious of your performance over time. Reflection and review enables the long-term improvement of all habits because it makes you aware of your mistakes and helps you consider possible paths for improvement. Without reflection, we can make excuses, create rationalizations, and lie to ourselves. We have no process for determining whether we are performing better or worse compared to yesterday.

Improvement is not just about learning habits, it's also about fine-tuning them. Reflection and review ensures that you spend your time on the right things and make course corrections whenever necessary. You don't want to keep practicing a habit if it becomes ineffective.

James Clear's annual review:

1. What went well this year?

2. What didn't go so well this year?

3. What did I learn?

James Clear's intergrity report:

1. What are the core values that drive my life and work?

2. How am I living and working with integrity right now?

3. How can I set a higher standard in the future?

In the beginning, repating a habit is essential to build up evidence of your desired identity. As you latch on to that new identity, however, those same beliefs can hold you back from the next level of growth. When working against you, your identity creates a kind of "pride" that encourages you to deny your weak spots and prevents you from truly growing. This is one of the greatest downsides of building habits.

The more sacred an idea is to us -- that is, the more deeply it is tied to our identity --- the more strongly we will defend it against criticism. You see this in every industry. The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.

One solution is to avoid making any single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are. In the words of investor Paul Graham, "keep your identity small." The more you let a single belief define you, the less capable you are of adapting when life challenges you.

When you spend your whole life defining yourself in one way and that disappears, who are you now?

The following quote from the Tao Te Ching encapsulates the ideas perfectly:

Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail.

-- Lao Tzu

A lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 20).

Atomic Habits Chapter 19: The Goldirocks rule: How to stay motivated in life and work

 The Goldirocks rule: How to stay motivated in life and work

The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is withing an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you will quickly become bored. It's too easy. You'll win every point. In contrast, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, you will quickly lose motivation because the match is too difficult.

The Goldirocks Rule states that human experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

Improvement requires a delicate balance. You need to regularly search for challenges that push you to your edge while continuing to make enough progress to stay motivated. Behaviors need to remain novel in order for them to stay attractive and satisfying. Without variety, we get bored. And boredom is perhaps the greatest villain on the quest for self-improvement.

What do the really successful people do that most don't? He mentioned the factors you might expect: genetics, luck, talent. But then he said something I wasn't expecting: "At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. Perhaps this is why we get caught up in a never-ending cycle, jumping from one workout to the next, one diet to the next, one business idea to the next. As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy -- even if the old one was still working. As Machiavelli noted, "Men desire novelty to such an extent that those who are doing well wish for a change as much as those who are doing badly." Perhaps this is why many of the most habit-forming products are those that provide continuous forms of novelty. Video games provide visual novelty. Porn provides sexual novelty. Junk foods provide culinary novelty. Each of these experiences offer continual elements of surprise.

As habits become routine, they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored. If you're already interested in a habit, working on challenges of just manageable difficulty is a good way to keep things interesting. Variable rewards or not, no habit will stay interesting forever. At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom.

Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It's the ability to keep going when work isn't exciting that makes the difference.

Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work toward it with purpose; amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life. Professionals take action even when the mood isn't right. They might not enjoy it, but they find a way to put the reps in.

The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 19).

Atomic Habits Chapter 18: The truth about talent (when genes matter and when they don't)

 The truth about talent (when genes matter and when they don't)

The secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition. The people at the top of any competitive field are not only well trained, they are also well suited to the task. And this is why, if you want to be truly great, selecting the right place to focus is crucial. In short: genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity. As physician Gabor Mate notes, "Genes can predispose, but they don't predetermine." The areas where you are genetically predisposed to success are the areas where habits are more likely to be satisfying. The key is to direct your effort toward areas that both excite you and match your natural skills, to align your ambition with your ability.

Pick the right habit and progress is easy. Pick the wrong habit and life is a struggle. Your genes are operating beneath the surface of every habit. Indeed, beneath the surface of every behavior.

Genes cannot be easily changed, which means they provide a powerful advantage in favorable circumstances and a serious disadvantage in unfavorable circumstances.

Habits are easier when they align with your natural abilities. Choose the habits that best suit you.

Bundled together, your unique cluster of genetic traits predispose you to a particular personality. Your personality is the set of characteristics that is consistent from situation to situation. The most proven scientific analysis of personality traits is known as the "Big Five," which breaks them down into five spectrums of behavior:

1. Openness to experience: from curious and inventive on one end to cautious and consistent on the other.

2. Conscientiousness: organized and efficient to easygoing and spontaneous.

3. Extroversion: outgoing and energetic to solitary and reserved (you likely know them as as extroverts vs. introverts).

4. Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate to challenging and detached.

5. Neuroticism: anxious and sensitive to confident, calm, and stable.

The takeaway is that you should build habits that work for your personality. People can get ripped working out like a bodybuilder, but if you prefer rock climbing or cycling or rowing, then shape your exercise habit around your interests. If your friend follows a low-carb diet but you find that low-fat works for you, then more power to you.

In the beginning of a new activity, there should be a period of exploration. In relationships, it's called dating. In college, it's called the liberal arts. In business, it's called split testing. The goal is to try out many possibilities, research a broad range of ideas, and cast a wide net. After this initial period of exploration, shift your focus to the best solution you've found -- but keep experimenting occasionally. The proper balance depends on whether you're winning or losing. If you are currently winning, you exploit, exploit, exploit. If you are currently losing, you continue to explore, explore, explore.

As you explore different options, there are a series of questions you can ask yourself to continually narrow in on the habits and areas that will be most satisfying to you:

What feels like fun to me, but work to others?

What makes me lose track of time?

Where do I get greater returns than the average person?

What comes naturally to me?

Play a game that favors your strengths. If you can't find a game that favors you, create one. Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind Dilbert, says, "Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I'm hardly an artist. And I'm not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I'm funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It's the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it."

When you can't win by being better, you can win by being different. By combining your skills, you reduce the level of competition, which makes it easire to stand out. You can shortcut the need for a genetic advantage (or for years of practice) by rewriting the rules. A good player works hard to win the game everyone else is playing. A great player creates a new game that favors their strengths and avoids their weakness. Specialization is a powerful way to overcome the "accident" of bad genetics. The more you master a specific skill, the harder it becomes for other to compete with you.

It's more productive to focus on whether you are fulfilling your own potential than comparing yourself to someone else. The fact that you have a natural limit to any specific ability has nothing to do with whether you are reaching the ceiling of your capabilities. People get so caught up in the fact that they have limits that they rarely exert the effort required to get close to them.

Genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it. They tell us what to work hard on.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 18).

Atomic Habits Chapter 17: How an accountability partner can change everything

 How an accountability partner can change everything

The inversion of the 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it unsatisfying.

We are less likely to repeat a bad habit if it is painful or unsatisfying. If a failure is relatively painful, it gets fixed. If a failure is relatively painless, it gets ignored.

An accountability partner can create an immediate cost to inaction. We care deeply about what others think of us, and we do not want others to have a lesser opinion of us.

A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. It makes the costs of violating your promises public and painful.

Knowing that someone else is watching you can be a powerful motivator.

How to create a good habit

The 4th law: Make it satisfying

4.1 Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit.

4.2 Make "doing nothing" enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits.

4.3 Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and "don't break the chain."

4.4 Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately.

Inversion of the 4th law: Make it unsatisfying

4.5 Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior.

4.6 Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 17).

Atomic Habits Chapter 16: How to stick with good habits every day

How to stick with good habits every day

One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.

A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit -- like marking an X on a calendar.

Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress.

Don't break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive.

Habit tracking is powerful because it leverages multiple Laws of Behavior Change. It simultaneously makes a behavior obvious, attractive, and satisfying.

#1 Habit tracking is obvious. Recording your last action creates a trigger that can initiate your next one. It also keeps you honest. When the evidence is right in front of you, you're less likely to lie to yourself.

#2 Habit tracking is attractive. When we get a signal that we are moving forward, we become more motivated to continue down that path. Each small win feeds your desire.

#3 Habit tracking is satisfying. It feels good to watch your results grow and if it feels good, then you're more likely to endure. It also helps keep your eye on the ball: you're focused on the process rather than the result. Furthermore, habit tracking provides visual proof that you are casting votes for the type of person you wish to become, which is a delightful form of immediate and intrinsic gratification.

What can we do to make tracking easier? First, whenever possible, measurement should be automated. Second, manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits. It is better to consistently track one habit than to sporadically track ten. Finally, record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs. The completion of the behavior is the cue to write it down.

The habit stacking + habit tracking formula is: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].

Example: After I hang up the phone from a sales call, I will move one paper clip over.

Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible. The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit. This is a distinguishing feature between winners and losers. Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work. But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn't matter if the reclaiming of it is fast.

Another potential danger -- especially if you are using a habit tracker -- is measuring the wrong thing. Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system. In our data-driven world, we tend to overvalue numbers and undervalue anything ephemeral, soft, and difficult to quantify. Just because you can measure something doesn't mean it's the most important thing.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 16).

Atomic Habits Chapter 15: The cardinal rule of behavior change

 The cardinal rule of behavior change

The 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it satisfying.

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. Feelings of pleasure -- even minor ones like washing your hands with soap that smells nice and lathers well -- are signals that tell the brain: "This feels good. Do this again, next time." Pleasure teaches your brain that a behavior is worth remembering and repeating.

The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards. You value the present more than the future. A reward that is certain right now is typically worth more than one that is merely possible in the future.

With our bad habits, the immediate outcome usually feels good, but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits, it is the reverse.

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided. Our preference for instant gratification reveals an important truth about success: because of how we are wired, most people will spend all day chasing quick hits of satisfaction. The road less traveled is the road of delayed gratification. If you're willing to wait for the rewards, you'll face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes, the last mile is always the least crowded.

Thankfully, it's possible to train yourself to delay gratification -- but you need to work with the grain of human nature, not against it. The best way to do this is to add a little bit of immediate pleasure to the habits that pay off in the long-run and a little bit of immediate pain to ones that don't. To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful -- even if it's in a small way.

The ending of any experience is vital because we tend to remember it more than other phases. You want the ending of your habit is to be satisfying. The best approach is to use reinforcement, which refers to the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of a behavior. Reinforcement ties your habit to an immediate reward, which makes it satisfying when you finish.

A habit needs to be enjoyable for it to last. Simple bits of reinforcement -- like soap that smells great or toothpaste that has a refreshing mint flavor or seeing $50 hit your savings account -- can offer the immediate pleasure you need to enjoy a habit. And change is easy when it is enjoyable.

The first three laws of behavior change -- make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy -- increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of behavior change -- make it satisfying -- increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 15).

Atomic Habits Chapter 14: How to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible

 How to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible

The inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it difficult.

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behavior in the future.

The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to automate your habits.

Onetime choices -- like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic saving plan -- are single actions that automate your future habits and deliver increasing returns over time.

Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behavior.

How to create a good habit

The 3rd law: Make it easy

3.1 Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits.

3.2 Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.

3.3 Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact.

3.4 Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less.

3.5 Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior.

How to break a bad habit

Inversion of the 3rd law: Make it difficult

3.6 Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits.

3.7 Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 14).

Atomic Habits Chapter 13: How to stop procrastinating by using the two-minute rule

 How to stop procrastinating by using the two-minute rule

Habits can be completed in a few seconds but continue to impact your behavior for minutes or hours afterward.

Many habits occur at decisive moments -- choices that are like a fork in the road -- and either send you in the direction of a productive day or an unproductive one.

The Two-Minute Rule states, "When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do."

Read before bed each night, becomes read one page.

Do thirty minutes of yoga, becomes take out my yoga mat.

Run three miles, becomes tie my running shoes.

The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.

Standardize before you optimize. You can't improve a habit that doesn't exist.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 13).

Atomic Habits Chapter 12: The law of least effort

 The law of least effort

Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.

Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.

Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.

Increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is high, habits are difficult.

Prime your environment to make future actions easier.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 12).

Atomic Habits Chapter 11: Walk slowly, but never backward

 Walk slowly, but never backward

The 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it easy.

The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning.

Focus on taking action, not being in motion. When you're in motion, you're planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don't produce a result. If I outline twenty ideas for articles I want to write, that's motion. If I actually sit down and write an article, that's action. If I search for a better diet plan and read few books on the topic, that's motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that's action.

Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. With each repetition, cell-to-cell signaling improves and the neural connections tighten, this phenomenon known as Hebb's Law: "Neurons that fire together wire together."

Repeating a habit leads to clear physical changes in the brain. In musicians, the cerebellum -- criticial for physical movements-- is larger than it is in nonmusicians. Mathematicians, meanwhile, have increased gray matter in the inferior parietal lobule, which plays a key role in computation and calculation. When scientists analyzed the brains of taxi drivers in London, they found that the hippocampus -- a region of the brain involved in spatial memory -- was significantly larger in their subjects than in non-taxi drivers.

Each time you repeat an action, you are activating a particular neural circuit associated with that habit. All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behavior, a process known as automaticity. Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over.

The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 11).

Atomic Habits Chapter 10: How to find and fix the causes of your bad habits

 How to find and fix the causes of your bad habits

The inversion of the 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it unattractive.

Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive.

Find love and reproduce = using Tinder

Connect and bond with others = browsing Facebook

Win social acceptance and approval = posting on Instagram

Reduce uncertainty = searching on Google

Achieve status and prestige = playing video games

Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.

The cause of your habits is actually the prediction that precedes them. The prediction leads to a feeling.

Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive.

Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings. Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

How to create a good habit:

The 2nd Law: Make it attractive

2.1 Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.

2.2 Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.

2.3 Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make it unattractive

2.4 Reframe your mind-set. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 10).

Atomic Habits Chapter 9: The role of family and friends in shaping your habits

 The role of family and friends in shaping your habits

The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us.

We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe.

Humans are herd animals. We want to fit in, to bond with others, and to earn the respect and approval of our peers. Such inclinations are essential to our survival. For most of our evolutionary history, our ancestors lived in tribes. Becoming separated from the tribe -- or worse, being cast out -- was a death sentence. "The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives."

We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).

One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group.

The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual. Most days, we'd rather be wrong with the crowd than be right by ourselves.

If a behavior can get us approval, respect, and praise, we find it attractive.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 9).

Atomic Habits Chapter 8: How to make a habit irresistible

 How to make a habit irresistible

The 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it attractive.

The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming.

Society is filled with highly engineered versions of reality that are more attractive than the world of our ancestors evolved in. Stores feature mannequins with exaggerated hips and breasts to sell clothes. Social media delivers more 'likes' and praise in a few minute than we could ever get in the office or at a home. Online porn splices together stimulating scenes at a rate that would be impossible to replicate in real life. Advertisements are created with a combination of ideal lighting, professional makeup, and Photoshopped edits -- even the model doesn't look like the person in the final image. These are the supernomal stimuli of our modern world. They exaggerate features that are naturally attractive to us, and our instincts go wild as a result, driving us into excessive shopping habits, social media habits, porn habits, eating habits, and many others.

We begin by examining a biological signature that all habits share -- the dopamine spike. Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act. When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it.

It is the anticipation of a reward -- not the fulfillment of it -- that gets us to take action. Interestingly, the reward system that is activated in the brain when you receive a reward is the same system that is activated when you anticipate a reward. This is one reason the anticipation of an experience can often feel better than the attainment of it. As a child, thinking about Christmas morning can be better than opening the gifts. As an adult, daydreaming about an upcoming vacation can be more enjoyable than actually being on vacation. Scientists refer to this as the difference between "wanting" and "liking." The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike. It is the craving that leads to the response.

Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.

You can even combine temptation bundling with the habit stacking strategy to create a set of rules to guide your behavior:

1. After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].

2. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].

If you want to read the news, but you need to express more gratitude:

1. After I get my morning coffee, I will say one thing I'm grateful for that happened yesterday (need).

2. After I say one thing I'm grateful for, I will read the news (want).

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 8).

Atomic Habits Chapter 7: The secret to self-control

The inversion of the 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it invisible.

Once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten.

People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It's easier to avoid temptation than resist it.

One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.

Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.

How to create a good habit:

The 1st Law: Make it obvious

1.1. Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them.

1.2. Use implementation intentions: "I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]."

1.3. Use habit stacking: "After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]."

1.4. Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.

How to break a bad habit:

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make it invisible

1.5. Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 7).

Atomic Habits Chapter 6: Motivation is overrated; environment often matters more

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior. In church, people tend to talk in whispers. On a dark street, people act wary and guarded. In this way, the most common form of change is not internal, but external: we are changed by the world around us. Every habit is context dependent.

Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time. The most powerful of all human sensory abilities, however, is vision. The human body has about eleven million sensory receptors. Approximately ten million of those are dedicated to sight. Some experts estimate that half of the brain's resources are used on vision. Given that we are more dependent on vison than on any other sense, it should come as no surprise that visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behavior. For this reason, a small change in what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do. As a result, you can imagine how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones. You don't have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.

Every habit is initiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out. Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment. You can alter the spaces where you live and work to increase your exposure to positive cues and reduce your exposure to negative ones.

Gradually, your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behavior. The context becomes the cue. You can train yourself to link a particular habit with a particular context.

It is easier to build new habits in a new environment because you are not fighting against old cues. When you can't manage to get to an entirely new environment, redefine or rearrange your current one. Create a separate space for work, study, exercise, entertainment, and cooking. The mantra I find useful is "one space, one use." Whenever possible, avoid mixing the context of one habit with another. Every habit should have a home.

If you can manage to stick with this strategy, each context will become associated with a particular habit and mode of thought. Habits thrive under predictable circumstances like these. Focus come automatically when you are sitting at your work desk. Relaxation is easier when you are in a space designed for that purpose. Sleep comes quickly when it is the only thing that happens in your bedroom. If you want behaviors that are stable and predictable, you need an environment that is stable and predictable. A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.

Saduran dari: Clear, James. 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Chapter 6).