life...but not actually getting closer  to the person that you want to be.

It usually happens around New years, you imagine  all the bad habits your going to break free from,  

and all the good habits you will begin.

“This time it will be different”  you say to yourself. This time I  

AM going to do the things that I say I will.

Only to end up back where you began shortly  after and no closer to what you had envisaged.

So the question is, how do you become the person  you dream of becoming? How do you break free  

from bad habits and make the habits  you desire easier and automatic?

Atomic Habits by James Clear  answers all these questions.

We are going to be doing a detailed visual summary  of this book, And dive deep into topics like

Habit loops Dopamine spikes 

Priming your environment Plus heaps more

And make sure to stick around until the  end of the video where we tie everything  

together from the video and I go step by  step through how I've personally been using  

this book with my own habits and how you  can start applying it to your own habits.

I hope this summary inspires you to go out  and grab a copy of the book for yourself  

because this book deserves a  space on everyone's bookshelf!

Let's jump into it

Imagine a plane taking off and  travelling from New York to Los Angeles.  

Just before takeoff you adjust the  plane just slightly by 3 degrees  

or around 80 inches. If you kept flying in  a straight line...You would end up closer  

to Tijuana in Mexico than in your  intended destination of Los Angeles.

The same goes for our habits.  Tiny changes in our habits  

can change the trajectory of our lives  in ways that we can't even notice  

until many years into the future looking back.  In both good ways and bad. You are your habits.

The Power of Atomic Habits

“A slight change in your daily habits can guide  your life to a very different destination”.

Massive action Vs 1% improvements

Far too often, we convince ourselves that massive  success is only possible through massive action  

in any goal we are pursuing. We expect  ourselves to make some quantum leap or  

momentous improvement that  will gain others attention.

However it is the tiny improvements,  that aren't even noticeable at first,  

that create incredible change.

Let's look deeper into the Math

1% better every day for a year will  compound to nearly 38 times better.

1% worse every day for over a  year will bring you close to zero!

Your habits can compound against you in the form  of things like stress or negative self-talk.

Or they can compound for you in  the form of things like knowledge,  

productivity, skills and relationships.

“Success is the product of  daily habits—not once-in 

a lifetime transformations”

The Truth About progress

When you start any endeavour in your life, here  is what we think should happen. Linear progress.

Here is what actually happens. Notice  this section here. In the beginning,  

small changes in our progress  are not even noticeable.

James Clear refers to this part of the  graph as “the valley of disappointment”  

You've done so much! Put in so much  effort and you can barely see any results!  

This is where most people fail and  slip back into their old routines.

The most powerful outcomes of any compounding  process are delayed so Patience is required.

Goals Vs Systems.

“ FORGET ABOUT GOALS, FOCUS ON SYSTEMS INSTEAD”

A goal is the result you want  to accomplish. Systems deal  

with the processes that lead to results.

The conventional wisdom suggests that the best  way to achieve anything we want in life-getting  

into better shape, building a successful business,  

spending more time with family is  to set specific, realistic goals.

But if you completely ignored your  goals and focused only on your system,  

would you still succeed?

The Author argues that you would.

Here are some problems with only having goals. Successful and unsuccessful people share the  

same goals, so therefore the goal can not  be what differentiates winners from losers. 

Achieving a goal only changes  your life for a moment in time. 

Goals can create an either-or conflict.  Either you achieve the goal and succeed,  

or you don't and you are a failure. Even if  you were making progress in the right direction 

When you achieve a goal, what do you do after?  If your goal was running the local marathon,  

chances are after completing it,  your motivation will quickly fade  

and you will just slip back  into your old routines.

“Goals are good for setting a direction,  but systems are best for making progress”

A SYSTEM OF ATOMIC HABITS

The problem with changing your habits is not you.  The reason why you repeat the same bad habit for  

so long isn't because you don't want to change,  but because you have the wrong system for change.

Atomic habits are small routines and behaviors  that accumulate to produce incremental positive  

outcomes over time. Big breakthroughs tend to  get more attention than small improvements.  

But what really matters are the little  daily decisions and actions we take.

“Just as atoms are the  building blocks of molecules,  

atomic habits are the building  blocks of remarkable results”.

There are 3 layers to behavior change.

The first layer is changing outcomes.The  result. Losing that weight, writing that book,  

winning the season. The outcomes are what you get

The Second layer is changing  your process. What you do.  

The new workout routine,  developing a daily reading habit.

And the third layer is changing  your identity. What you believe.  

Your worldviews and how you  think about yourself and others.

Most people focus on the outcomes but  the best way to change your habits  

is by focusing on the person you want to  become instead of the results you want.

The goal isn't to learn an instrument,  it is to become a musician.

The goal isn't to run a marathon,  It is to become a runner.

When something you want in your  life becomes part of your identity,  

that is when your behaviors will naturally change.

When you tell yourself and others “I'm a  runner”. You want to live up to that identity.

Remind yourself

Every Time you do a workout, you are an athlete. 

Every time you write a line  of code, you are a coder. 

Each time you instruct your  team, you are a leader.

The Habit Loop A habit is when  

something has been repeated enough  times that it becomes automatic.  

Ultimately we want our habits to solve problems  in our lives with the least amount of effort.

A habit is formed and reinforced by  means of a continuous feedback loop:  

Cue + Craving + Response + Reward.  The key to creating habits that stick  

is to create feedback loops that  are continuously being improved.

Cue. Phone buzz. Craving.  Want to know who messaged.  

Response. Pick up phone. Reward.  Solve the problem of who messaged.

Cue. Mind goes blank at work. Craving.  Want to alleviate the frustration.  

Response. Check social media. Reward.  Satisfied the need to feel less frustrated

Over time, rewards become associated with cues.

So, in this example, checking social media  becomes tied to your mind going blank at work.

And then checking Facebook may be the cue to check  Instagram, which becomes the cue to check YouTube.

And before you know it, your mind going blank  cue has led to 20 minutes of wasted time.

And you more you repeat these habit loops,  the stronger and more automatic they become.

Cues can really be anything. A smell, a  sound a sight, a person, a location etc.

Try to think of any cues in your daily life that  are initiating your good or bad habit loops.

So how can we influence the  habit loop to work for us?

This book shows us the 4 laws that  will guide us to do just that.

Law 1 Make it obvious

Most of your current habits are so automatic that  you don't even realize them. You must first become  

aware of your habits before you can change them.  You can achieve that with your Habit Scorecard.

Write down all your daily  behaviors on a habits scorecard,  

from the moment you wake up  until the moment you go to bed.

Your scorecard may look something like this.

Based on whether it helps you  become the person you aspire to be,  

categorize each habit as positive  (+), negative (-), or neutral (=).

At this stage we aren't trying to change anything,  

just observe what is actually  going on in our daily lives.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious,  it will direct your life and you will call  

it fate.” Carl Yung

Vagueness is a real problem when it comes to habit  formation, and studies have shown that quite often  

the reason people fail to stick to a habit  is not because of a lack of motivation,  

but because of a lack of clarity. “One day, I  will get into shape” is easy to say to yourself  

but too vague to get any momentum.  What you need is a time and a place.

The most common cues—time and  location—will help you achieve your goals.  

Clearly state your intention to  act using the following formula:

I will behavior at time in this location.

Here is a bad example,

“I will read more this month”

Here is a good example

“I will read a book for 15 minutes  daily at 6am in the spare bedroom”.

Another good way to get a habit  started is by Habit stacking.  

To stack habits, tie a desired habit to an  existing habit according to the following formula:

“After [current habit], I will [new habit]”.

For example,

“After I brush my teeth, I  will stretch for 5 minutes”.  

You can stack habits together, for example  after you finish brushing your teeth,  

you will meditate for 10 minutes, then plan the  rest of your day, before checking social media.

A “chain of habits” is more likely to be  sustained if you practice this consistently.  

Choosing the correct trigger is  essential. YOU NEED A TRIGGER CUE

Your trigger should be;

something that you do automatically  without fail during your day,  

such as waking up, turning off  your alarm or brushing your teeth.

James Clear tells us in the book  that Motivation is highly overrated.  

You can better shape your behavior  by designing your environment. 

We are more influenced by our environment  than our willpower or motivation. 

It's hard to stick to positive  habits in a negative environment.

“Environment is the invisible hand  that shapes human behavior.”  

Creating a habit requires you to redesign  the space around you (home/work) to 

1 - make it easier to see the  cues for the desired habits and 

2 - avert bad habits by making them invisible.

If you want to drink more water, make the cues  visible and obvious. Place water bottles around  

the house in places you are likely to see them.  Want to read more? place the book somewhere you  

will see it. If you want to get better on the  guitar, don't leave it out of sight in a closet.

CONTEXT IS THE CUE

Objects in the environment do not determine our  behavior; rather, it is our relationship to them  

that does. Stop seeing your environment  as a place simply filled with objects.  

Imagine it as a place filled with relationships. The couch in the living room is the place where  

one person reads an hour a night. For another, the  couch is where they watch Netflix and eat pizza  

and relax after work. If your relationship  with the couch is a place to relax,  

then trying to get a work related task  done in that environment may be difficult.

Try to make separate zones in your  house for different activities.  

The author likes to use the  mantra “One space, One use”

If you are trying to eliminate a bad habit, You  can only rely on self-control in the short-term.  

Cutting off bad habits at the source is a more  reliable solution and one of the most practical  

ways to eliminate a bad habit is to make it  invisible. Eliminate it from your environment.

For example

Put your phone in another room for a few  hours if you have trouble getting work done. 

Put junk food out of sight or remove it from  your house if you are trying to lose weight.

Law 2

Making it Attractive

When we expect to be rewarded, we take  action. The more rewarding an action is,  

the more likely we are to repeat  it until it becomes a habit.  

Hence, the first step to forming good  habits is to make them more attractive.

Understanding how dopamine  affects your body will help you

DOPAMINE & FEEDBACK LOOPS

Our motivation levels are affected by dopamine,  a hormone and neurotransmitter. We are more  

motivated to act when our dopamine  levels rise. By measuring dopamine,  

scientists can pinpoint the exact moment at  which a craving occurs. It was once assumed  

that dopamine was just about pleasure, but now we  know it's vital to many neurological functions,  

including motivation, memory, learning,  punishment as well as voluntary movement.

“Gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right  before they place a bet, not after they win”.

Let's dive deeper into dopamine spikes.

Using social media, eating junk food  and taking drugs are all associated  

with high levels of dopamine  and are highly habit forming.

The hormone dopamine is released not  only when we experience pleasure,  

but also when we anticipate it. Think about before going on a vacation.

Sometimes the thinking and anticipation of the  vacation is better than the actual vacation.

Seeing the junk food you desire  surges dopamine, not after eating it.