Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by James Clear

We are more likely to notice cues that stand out.

It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, “The best is the enemy of the good.”

motion allows us to feel like we’re making progress without running the risk of failure.

you want to delay failure.

you just need to get your reps in.

habits form based on frequency, not time.

You need to string together enough successful attempts until the behavior is firmly embedded in your mind and you cross the Habit Line.

master the habit of showing up.

habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details.

You have to standardize before you can optimize.

It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.

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.

we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.

Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you.

genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity.

“Genes can predispose, but they don’t predetermine.”

we think that successful people have some bottomless reserve of passion.

really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else.

difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the ...

Mastery requires ...

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.

We get bored with habits

because they stop deli...

outcome becomes e...

we start derailing our progress to ...

As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy—even if the old one was still working.

no habit will stay interesting forever.

you have to fall in love with boredom.

if you only do the work when it’s convenient or exciting, then you’ll never be consistent enough to achieve remarkable results.

stepping up when it’s annoying or painful or draining to do so, that’s what makes the difference between a professional and an amateur.

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.

When a habit is truly important to you, you have to be willing to stick to it in any mood.

Professionals take action even when the mood isn’t right.

might not enjoy it, but they find a way to p...

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.

The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.

You can’t repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional.

combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice.

Habits + Deliberate Practic...

When you cling too tightly to one identity, you become brittle.

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.

Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross.

a system to improve, an endless process to refine.

This is a continuous process. There is no finish line. There is no permanent solution.