Atomic Habits

Name: Atomic Habits
Author: Raj Kiran Chaudhary

James Clear

8 ideas

2.1K reads

Books

Explore the World's Best Ideas

Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.

How your habits shape your identity

Outcome-based habits focus on what you want to achieve. Identity-based habits focus on who you wish to become.
Usually, people try to change their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve, resulting in outcome-based habits.
But the author's approach focus on identity-based habits. With this approach, we focus on who we desire to become.
Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act as per their belief.
For instance - If you believe you have nice hair then you will develop all sorts of habits to maintain your hair.

345 reads

First, decide the type of person you want to become and second, prove it to yourself with tiny wins.
For example:- you want to write a book. Ask yourself, who is the type of person that can write a book? The answer is the person who writes consistently. Now your focus shifted from writing a book (outcome-based) to being the type of person who is consistent(identity-based).
You need to know who you want to be and then changing your habits would be easy.
Your habits shape your identity and your identity shape your habits. It is a two-way street.

283 reads

Before knowing building better habits, first, we need to know the science behind how habits work.
Habits form in the following order: Cue → craving → response → reward
Cue: A cue is like a trigger or a signal that prompts you to start a habit. It's something that you see, feel, hear, or experience that reminds you of the habit you want to perform.
Craving: Craving refers to the desire or longing you feel when you encounter the cue. It's the feeling that drives you to want to do the habit. It's like the internal motivation that pushes you to take action.

261 reads

Response: The response is the actual habit or action you perform in response to the cue and craving.
Reward: The reward is the outcome or benefits you get from completing the habit.
Together, these four elements create a habit loop, where the cue triggers a craving, which leads to a response (habit), and then you receive a reward, creating the loop and making the habit more likely to repeat in the future.
Understanding and controlling these elements can help you build good habits and break bad ones.
Hence, if you want to break the bad habit then you should be doing the following thing

231 reads

Eliminate the queue and your habit will never start.
Reduce the craving and you won’t have enough motivation to act
Make the behaviour/response difficult and you won’t be able to do it
And if the reward is unable to satisfy your desire, then you won’t repeat the behaviour again.