One of the best books written about habits is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. In the book is written about habits and how to make this process a little easier.
He has 4 four steps for making habits and other tips we can follow in order to change our f living: cue, craving, reward, response.
One of the things you should try in order to have healthy habits is being 1% better every day, and you’ll be 3.7 times better every year. You do not have to change your entire life in onebut, but if you focus on small steps you will have remarkable results. In the book “Atomic habits”, James Clear wrote a quote said by Jacob Riis: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as muchas a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.” Remember this quote every time you want to give up.
Another thing you can do is acting like the person you want to become. When you are about to do something that is not good, you are going to ask yourself: “What would do a person with a healthy lifestyle if he/she was in my place?”.
Do not focus just on the motivation because the motivation is overestimated, the environmentis the one that makes the change. For example, when you are going to the supermarket, you do not buy unhealthy food because of their qualities, you buy it because it is placed in a place that is more accessible for you compared with the place where the healthy food are.
Let’s see the laws you should respect in order to stick to healthy habits!
● The first law: Make It Obvious
○ Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become awareof them.
○ Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”
○ Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
○ Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.
● The second law: Make It Attractive
○ Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you needto do.
○ Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.
○ Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
● The third law: Make It Easy
○ Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your goodhabits.
○ Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.
○ Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsizedimpact.
○ Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in twominutes or less.
○ Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior.
● The fourth law: Make It Satisfying
○ Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete yourhabit.
○ Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way tosee the benefits.
○ Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.”
○ Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately.
● HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT
● Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible
○ Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.
● Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive
○ Reframe your mind-set. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.
● Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult
○ Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits.
○ Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefityou.
● Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying
○ Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior.
○ Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful.
Bibliography:
a. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRC0tqmRNxhonjCbxDABYqK9xCgcGFYypKNYg&usqp=CAU
b. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQBZvkLFL8EanFbgs0fAwdq1EzAbp5DDrIUyw&usqp=CAU
c. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2MRvcYjZ7pSbT1J3586XDpkXLcexWNr9JhQ&usqp=CAU
d. The last photo with the road was made by me in Canva.
e. The information was taken from the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.
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