Book Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear

Have you ever wondered how minute, seemingly insignificant adjustments in your daily routine could drastically change your life? That's what we're breaking down in our latest chat about "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, a book that's shifted the way we approach personal development. We delve into the science of habit formation, sharing how the smallest actions, when repeated consistently, can compound into life-altering transformations. Let's take the concept of 'Atomic Habits' for a spin and see how tiny tweaks in our behaviors can unlock productivity, motivation, and happiness levels we never thought possible.

Join us as we swap stories from our own lives, illustrating the book's impact on our habits and, subsequently, our goals. Discover habit stacking and the two-minute rule, ingenious strategies we've adopted to seamlessly incorporate new, beneficial behaviors into our everyday lives. If you've ever felt stuck in a rut or are looking for that spark to ignite change, this conversation will equip you with practical tools to begin your journey towards a more disciplined and fulfilling life. Remember, it's not about overhauling your life in one swoop—it's about starting small.

The Review Scale

5 - Earns a Permanent Spot in my Library!
4 - Great book!
3- Its a Good One
2- Its alright, but not for me.
1- Trust me, Don't Waste Your TIME!

Tune in and have a listen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

In today's episode, we're going to be looking at a book review for Atomic Habits by James Clear. Let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Talk Mode. Today, as mentioned in the intro, we're going to be looking at Atomic Habits by James Clear Tiny changes, remarkable results. An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. International bestseller apparently over 8 million copies sold, weighing in at 306 pages, including the index and appendices, first published in 2018.

Speaker 1: 1:27

This is a non-fiction book, as you can probably tell by the title. I'm going to give you a read of the blurb and then I'm going to use some of my thoughts on the book. So, looking at the back of the book, a revolutionary way to get 1% better. Every day, people think when you want to change your life, you need to think big. But World renowned habits expert, james Clear, has discovered another way. He knows the real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions doing two pushups a day, waking up five minutes earlier or reading just one more page. He calls them Atomic Habits. In this groundbreaking book, clear reveals exactly how these minuscule changes can grow into such life altering outcomes. He uncovers a handful of simple life hacks, the forgotten art of habit stacking, the unexpected power of the two-minute rule or the trick to entering the Goldilocks, and delves into cutting edge psychology and neuroscience to explain why they matter. Along the way, he tells inspiring stories of Olympic gold medalists, leading CEOs and distinguished scientists who have used the science of tiny habits to stay productive, motivated and happy. These small changes will have a transformative effect on your career, your relationships and your life. And you know what, man? That blurb is spot on.

Speaker 1: 3:05

So I'm going through this little phase right now where I'm trying to organize myself and do a few things a little bit better, as you may have heard over the last couple of episodes and one of those things is to take those little steps to improve my day-to-day habits, which, in turn, will improve my week-to-week habits, which, in turn, will help me achieve the goals that I have for any particular month and then eventually, the year. So, for example, let's do something really, really small that I'm trying to implement in my life at the moment is I want to get healthier. So if you take that step back, so let's say I want to lose some items, I want to get healthier. To do that, I need to lose a certain weight. To do that, I need to work out. To do that I need to go to the gym. Potentially right is one of the options. But to get to that point where I'm willing to go to the gym every day or it becomes a natural habit and requires less effort to go to the gym every day, to get to that point, I need to first just start off being active in general and to get into that. I want to do something I enjoy, something that I find appealing, right.

Speaker 1: 4:29

So what I'm trying to do at the moment is just get out for a walk every single day, without fail. I have been going out for a walk since the new year started. Now it can only be 30 minutes, it can be 20 minutes, it can be an hour, but I will get out every day. The moment I've been doing out of lunch. I would love to do it in the morning, but where I am at the moment is dark at 6 am. So I think once the spring comes in and it starts getting lighter earlier, I'll end up doing it in the morning and I kind of want that to be a part of the habit. But at the moment I'm just getting out whenever I can.

Speaker 1: 5:06

So, whether it's at lunchtime or it's just late morning or wherever it is, it depends on whether I'm at work or not I'll get out and go for a walk. Even if it's 30 minutes, it's fine. Yeah, nothing intensive, nothing like that. Just get out, put on my post list to put music and take a walk, and that's a small habit that will hopefully lead on to bigger habits. Yeah, and James Clear in this book would refer to something like that, not even that big. You'd say, get out and walk five minutes, but it would refer to something like that as an atomic habit.

Speaker 1: 5:41

So I've just got to read one of these pages where he's outlined four laws to create a good habit. I'm not going to read into very much detail because I want you to go ahead and get this book and read it because, trust me, it's really, really good. But let's have a quick look here. It says how to create a good habit. Yeah, first law make it obvious. Second law is make it attractive. The third law is to make it easy and the fourth law is to make it satisfying. Yeah, and genuinely, genuinely. It's such a a such a good book and it's so straightforward once you actually read it. So I definitely recommend this book.

Speaker 1: 6:30

On my scale, this is a five. If you don't know my scale, go down in the comments below. You'll be able to read my scale, but this is a five. This is at a permanent spot in my library of books. That was just another quick five minute book review. Let me know what you think. Have you read this? Have you got other books that you'd suggest that focus on a similar sort of subject? Contact me on instagram at our originals. Thank you very much for listening. Take care. Goodbye.