If you progress by 1% daily, after a year, you will have improved 37 times over; if you regress by 1% daily, after a year, you will have weakened to almost zero.
Small changes or a good habit can create a compounding effect, rolling like a snowball, and bringing fruitful outcomes in your personal growth journey!
Minor daily changes accumulate over time, showcasing the astonishing power of atomic habits! Atomic habits equate to tiny progress multiplied by a good system. Much like atoms form the basic structure of molecules, atomic habits are the fundamental building blocks of significant achievements. The term “atomic” signifies that these progresses and efforts are very minute, atom-sized.
Small habits, akin to atoms, are not standalone. Habits act as the compounding factor of self-improvement, just as money multiplies through compounding, the effect of habits doubles as you keep practicing them. Achieving any goal requires a tad of effort in habit formation, silently altering everything along the way. To reach a new goal, construct a new habit system. The power of a system is immense; once established, it runs automatically, making the journey less strenuous and more effortless.
How Habits Shape Identity Often
We find changing habits challenging and nurturing good habits very tough, primarily due to two reasons:
- We are targeting the wrong aspect for change
- We are attempting to change our habits in an incorrect manner
Change occurs on three levels:
- Firstly, altering your outcomes;
- Secondly, altering your processes;
- Lastly, and most profoundly, altering your identity.
The right approach is to foster identity-based habits, focusing on the kind of person we aspire to become. Most people, while striving for self-improvement, don’t consider changing their identity, focusing solely on actions to achieve goals, ignoring the beliefs driving those actions.
The result? After achieving the goal, the old identity pulls you back into old routines, sabotaging new transformative agendas. If we focus on nurturing our belief system, contemplating a fundamental change in identity, we can achieve genuine transformation!
Without altering the underlying beliefs guiding your past behaviors, changing habits is challenging. Even with new goals and plans, you remain unchanged. Real behavioral change is a change in identity. A habit can be cultivated from a particular motivation, but the long-term sustenance of this habit is only because it’s now integrated with your identity. Improvements are temporary unless they become a part of you.
What’s the Most Effective Way to Change Habits?
The more a behavior is repeated, the more it reinforces the associated identity. You believe in your current identity because you have evidence; hence, to alter identity, continuously accumulate new evidence that corresponds to the new identity!
Conversely, bad habits will also reinforce an undesirable identity. So, avoid labeling yourself negatively like ‘bad at directions’, ‘bad at math’, ‘not good at communication’. Year after year, by repeating these labels, you eventually slide into these mental molds and accept them as truth. Over time, when facing similar issues, you lack the courage to try. Therefore, don’t adhere to negative labels, and muster the courage to improve earnestly wherever you find a lack!
Change your identity recognition. Our daily lifestyles mold us into the individuals we become. In life, treat yourself well, dress nicely, be kind to yourself. Even when feeling down, enhance your mood by embracing external beauty to elevate inner energy, making yourself feel divine, deserving better, and thus attaining a better state. Engage in behaviors aligning with who you wish to become.
Upon realization, you’ll find that your goal isn’t just reading a book, but becoming a reader, not merely playing an instrument, but becoming a musician.
Habits are the materialization of identity recognition. By making your bed daily, you materialize the identity of an organized person; by writing daily, you materialize a creative identity; by exercising daily, you embody an active identity. The more a behavior is repeated, the more it strengthens the associated identity recognition. Don’t underestimate the power of small daily actions; they can grant you a new label of recognition.
Through habits, an author becomes a writer. Similarly, frequency is crucial. Each habit enhances self-image, and as you continue practicing, the evidence gradually accumulates. The process of habit formation is the process of becoming. When a change is meaningful, it’s a significant change.
To alter who you are, the practical approach is to change what you do. Do one thing daily. Every habit instills self-trust. You begin to believe you can genuinely accomplish this task. Through small victories in life, prove to yourself that you are the best version of yourself. The essence of habit is becoming.
Become the person you want to be; you indeed become your habits. Habits are numerous suggestions: Hey, maybe I’m this kind of person. Observe which actions have become habits, forming the present you.
How to Quit Bad Habits?
Rule 1: Make cues invisible. Reduce exposure, removing bad habit cues from your environment.
Rule 2: Make habits unappealing. Rework your mindset, emphasizing avoiding steps leading to bad habits.
Rule 3: Make actions extremely difficult. Increase resistance, adding steps between you and bad habits. Utilize commitment devices to limit future choices to beneficial ones.
Rule 4: Make consequences unsatisfying. Find an accountability partner to monitor your behavior. Draft a habit contract, making the costs of bad habits public and painful.
How to Better Form New Habits?
Rule 1: Make the cues obvious
One way is to decide what action will be done, where, and when. Link the new habit with something you already do daily. Try to make it as effortless as possible, so it can be done anytime, anywhere.
Another way is to redesign your environment. To do what you want, immerse yourself in the right environment. New environments can make it easier to change old habits. For instance, find new places that encourage the new habit, like cafes, bakeries, or libraries.
Rule 2: Make habits attractive
Make the habit more appealing to increase the desire to act. Habits are driven by the dopamine-driven feedback loop.
Find joy in what you do. Discover a sense of pleasure that makes you happier. Like exercising, which brings calm and a sense of physical joy. The pleasure encourages you to keep going.
We often imitate three kinds of people: close relations, the majority, and those in power (people with status and identity). Find someone who embodies what you aspire to be, observe them, and feel their presence. Seeing a version of your future self in them, and slowly approaching that version, will bring you joy.
Rule 3: Make actions easy
Make actions easy to do. Don’t be hard on yourself, and don’t make things difficult. Mastering a habit starts with repetition, not perfection. Habit formation depends on the frequency, not the duration.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. A behavior becomes automatic with repetition. Focus on taking action, not just on getting started.
Remember the principle of minimal effort. Opt for actions that provide the maximum value with the least effort.
For example, read a page a day to build confidence, keep reading, and gradually improve your comprehension, turning this behavior into a habit.
Rule 4: Make rewards satisfying
Humans are drawn towards pleasure.
Initially, keep your actions minimal and quit while you’re ahead. Then accumulate more energy to keep going.
In life, we can apply these techniques to various aspects like diet, exercise, parenting, marital relations, and reading.
Hopefully, we can improve a little every day, build new habits, maintain good habits, build a strong sense of identity, and reshape our surroundings. By establishing a good behavioral system over time, we can reap significant compounded benefits for ourselves.
What You Repeat, You Shall Receive
Consider how the daily choices will compound into something significant ten years down the line. Are you earning more than you spend each month? Have you made reading a monthly habit? Are you hitting the gym weekly? Success is only the outcome; the preceding incubation period is often unseen.
Time amplifies the gap between success and failure and compounds what you feed it. Good habits make you friends with time, while bad habits make you foes.
Success is cultivated through daily habits, not once-in-a-blue-moon transformations. Laziness is a human trait. The less effort a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur. We can simplify a behavior to make it easier to act upon.
What matters isn’t how successful or unsuccessful you are now, but whether your habits are putting you on the path to success.
Good habits will make our lives increasingly disciplined, bringing a sense of freedom and firmness. Let’s muster the courage to act, starting right now.
Believe that good habits will bring us change, and we will grow to love our lives more, cherishing each day and each moment.
