It is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.
In atomic habits, James clear has written what might be the most powerful book on the subject of habits that we've ever read.
Clear begins with the concept that success is built on hundreds of tiny habits that manifest themselves in huge ways.
He says; your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits, therefore, your net worth is just a lagging measure of your financial habits, your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits, your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits, your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits, you get what you repeat.
By this point in order to improve any area of your life, you simply need to dig deep into the systems that you have in place around that behavior.
THE 4 STEPS
It's hard to lose 50 pounds, yes, that's a great goal but, how do you actually do that?
You can start by going to the gym or walking 5 minutes daily, or you can start by cooking your lunches for the entire week on Sundays. None of these things will make you lose 50 pounds, but the combination of all those tiny wins could.
The first point that he makes is that you can change how you identify yourself by changing your habits. By bringing your lunch to work or school, you become the type of person who cares about what he is eating. Viewing yourself as someone who eats healthy could make it easier for you to refuse a cookie the next time.
It's offered that's all well and good, but how do you actually build a habit? there are four simple steps to building a habit that you'd like to create;
First one is the CUE.
How do I make it obvious? Cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior often centered around a time or location.
The second is the CRAVING.
How can I make it attractive? Craving is the motivational force behind any habit every craving is linked to a desire to get a reward.
The third is the RESPONSE.
How can I make it easy? Remove as many barriers to accomplishing this task as you can, taking away all the easy and obvious excuses to skip it.
Lastly is our favorite part, the REWARD.
How can I make this satisfied? This completes the habit loop and satisfies the craving that was created.
Let's say, for example, that you want to start running every day after work. For the cue, tell a friend or two that when you leave work at 5:00 p.m., you are going to run. This starts to build the association that when work is over, it's time to run.
Next, make it attractive. Find a park, a trail, or an area that you'll enjoy running in. To make it easy, make sure that you bring water, running shoes, clothes, and your heart rate monitor with you so you have everything that you need.
Lastly, make it satisfied. This could be your favorite sports drink waiting for you when you're done or something as simple as a phone app that helps you track your progress. The exact steps are customized for you, but the point is to make it work using just these four steps.
THE HABIT STACKING
The next concept that the book introduces is habit stacking. As the book defines it, habit stacking is the art of identifying a habit that you already do each day and then stacking a new behavior on top. To help visualize this, the book puts this into a formula: after my current habit, I will have it.
By taking advantage of a habit you currently have in place, it automatically builds a cue into the new habit, thus starting a new habit loop. In the running example that we looked at earlier, I sneaked in an example of habit stacking. Did you notice? When you get off work at 5:00 p.m., it is a clear cue for the start of your run. This assumes that you are in the habit of leaving work at 5:00 p.m., but you could just as easily start this habit after work as long as there is nothing between leaving work and starting your run.
If you go to the gym to run on a treadmill, you need to first build the habit of going to the gym, then start the habit of running. This makes it important to plan ahead so that there is nothing that could potentially interrupt the queue from happening since it is the start of every loop.
This is also why the environment plays such a big role in the formation of habits. Think back to the last time that you moved into a new house or apartment and had to think about when and where to do things that you would normally have just done. This is because of the new environment.
Instead of walking into the kitchen first thing in the morning to make coffee in the same location that you have for six months, your brain has to break down the process: where is the kitchen, where's the coffee, the coffee maker, the sink, and so forth? While the habit of drinking coffee first thing in the morning is still there, the mechanics of accomplishing the task are not different.
To clarify this even further, let's say you wanted to switch to drinking tea in the morning. There isn't a better time to do it than the first day in a new apartment because you can place the teabags next to the filter and mug and keep the coffee safely out of sight, but it made the cue of getting the tea much more obvious than getting the coffee; one is sitting on the counter next to a mug and the coffee is out of sight. To build on this example, let's say you like honey in your tea, but the honey on the counter next to the team now making tea with honey is obvious; that's your cue.
It is now attractive to you since, like Bonnie, your craving is taken care of; everything is sitting on the counter and ready for you. You've made it easy at this point; you've checked off the first three steps, and the fourth step is making it satisfied by taking care of it when you drink a warm honey-filled cup of tea. All this started with a new environment; in this case, it was the new environment.
THE POWER OF SYSTEMS
Now, let's talk about the power of systems and measuring progress.
James stresses a system-first mentality; it is the process that is important, not reaching some goal. You said the problem with a goal-first mindset is that once you reach a goal, that's a signal of failure and often a return to old ways, where with a system, it would just be another step in the process.
Going back to our example of losing 50 pounds, you hit the goal, but once you do, you think you're done. All of a sudden, your old habits start to kick back in, and you see the number on the scale start inching back up.
Instead of focusing on the goal of losing pounds, let's say, by making your lunch or going to the gym, you will have an easier time continuing. You're not done, but you can be happy because all of your systems are running smoothly, not to mention your 50-pound weight loss. Knowing you've lost 50 pounds could be a good example of another important concept, though in order to lose those 50 pounds, maybe one of your goals is to weigh yourself every day.
The reward for weighing yourself was recording your weight in a notebook or an app on your phone. This is a great example of habit tracking. Habit tracking provides a visual cue reminding you to act and is motivating because you start to see progress you naturally don't want to lose.
The ultimate form of a habit tracker is an accountability partner. As clear as it sounds, knowing that someone else is watching you can be a powerful motivator for running. As an example, there's actually no need to tell someone that you're running at 5 p.m. or after work; the cue in this situation is the clock hitting 5:00 p.m. We're getting off of work; you didn't have to do it, but by telling a friend or two, you make them into accountability partners. You don't want to come in the next day and have them ask how the run was only for you to have to reply, "Oh, I didn't do it." That simple act of telling someone could be the nudge you need when old habits are fighting the new cue.
Remember, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress. Your first cue might not work; you may have to adjust it to something that's more satisfying; you may need to change the reward to make it something more satisfying; just keep iterating.
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