BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Atomic Habits 

Title: ATOMIC HABITS: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Author: James Clear

Year: 2018

Tags: Adults, Self-Help, Habits, Goals

What’s It About?

Atomic Habits is a #1 New York Times Bestselling book that reads as a “how-to” manual for changing human behavior. Whether you are seeking to reduce a bad habit (e.g. smoking, waking up late) or trying to work towards a new goal (e.g. running a marathon, completing a degree), Atomic Habits is full of practical and concrete suggestions for getting you there.

The book explains some key concepts about habits in general (e.g. small changes in behaviour lead to big results over time) and provides useful instruction on how to establish an environment or system that will set you up for success as you work towards the development of healthy habits. The book goes into detail about the “4 Laws of Setting Good Habits” (make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying) and also includes appendix chapters with suggestions for how to apply these concepts to life domains such as parenting or business.

Highlights

Chapter 19: The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work

“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.”

This chapter explores aspects of the “Goldilocks Rule”, which describes the “optimal” level of arousal for human beings (where we are productive, motivated, and likely to perform at our best). In psychology this is formally referred to as the Yerkes-Dodson law and is often depicted with a bell-curve graphic, where too little arousal results in boredom and too much anxiety results in feeling overwhelmed. The tricky thing about habits – especially new ones – is that once they become routine, they also become predictable (and, to a certain extent, boring!) which can reduce our motivation for continuing. That’s why it can be helpful to continually move the goal-posts (in small or “atomic” fashion) to keep yourself engaged and moving forward.

Rating:

FOOTNOTE CITATION: Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. New York, Penguin Random House LLC.