[PART 3]

Over the past 2 years, I have read the 7 best books for developing an effective personal operating system - twice.

I have distilled them down to the 43 key insights that will upgrade your life.

Save yourself time and just implement these key concepts 🧵👇

Book #3: Atomic Habits (summary)

If you focus on improving yourself by developing good habits, you'll be able to achieve your goals.

Habit = a routine or behavior that is performed regularly — and, in many cases, automatically.

Key Concept (15): Develop Positive Habits Through Small, Incremental Changes

Small changes, though they may seem unimportant now, can add up.

Eventually, they can lead to drastic results (known as "incremental gains").

These small changes are what the author, James Clear calls atomic habits.

An atomic habit “refers to a tiny change, a marginal gain, a 1% improvement.”

There is an “operating manual” for how to use atomic habits to unlock your full potential.

Clear outlines Four Laws of Behavior Change we can use to create positive habits, or if reversed, to break bad habits.

Key Concept (16): If You Focus On Changing Your Identity, Your Habits Are More Likely To Stick Long-Term

Every small change we make is a reflection of our identity.

Every time you workout, you’re an athlete. Every time you learn a new computer skill, you’re good with technology

As you begin to change your habits, consider these two steps:

1) Decide the type of person you want to be

2) Prove it to yourself with small wins

Ask yourself: “Who is the type of person that could get the outcome I want?”

Once you have an idea on who you want to become, you can use it to better inform your decisions.

With this new mentality in mind, we can learn about the Four Laws of Behavior Change.

Key Concept (17): Make New Habits More Obvious By Attaching Them to Habits You Already Have

In order to build better habits, we first should be aware of the ones we already have.

To do this, make a list of any current habits you can think of. Then ask yourself, “Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be?”

You can even stack multiple habits, such as: “After I drink coffee, I will do fifteen pushups. After I do fifteen pushups, I will meditate for five minutes.”

The more simple and intuitive you can make your habits, the easier they will be to develop.

Key Concept (18): Make Hard Habits More Attractive By Linking An Action You Like With An Action You Need To Do

This is called “temptation bundling,” which is linking an action you need to do with an action you want to do.

You can also highlight the positive benefits of giving up a bad habit to make kicking the habit more attractive.

“If I give up smoking, I’ll have much higher energy and a better mood,” for example.

Key Concept (19): Make Your Habits Easier By Creating An Environment That Encourages Good Habits And Discouraged Bad Ones

We can make our habits easier (and our bad habits more difficult), by “priming” our environment.

This means setting up your environment to encourage the behaviors you want.

For example, if you want read more, put a book on your bed pillow or on your desk so it’s the first thing you do before going to bed or starting work.

The reverse also works— if you want to remove a bad habit, you should make it difficult.

A simple technique to make your bad habits more difficult is using a commitment device: a decision you make now that will control your actions in the future.

Key Concept (20): Encourage Yourself to Maintain Positive Habits By Making Your Progress Visible

Clear describes a habit developed by a stockbroker named Trent Dyrsmid in the early '90s.

Dyrsmid started every morning with two jars on his desk: one with 120 paper clips and one with none.

Then, every time he made a sales call, he would move a paper clip over. By the end of the day, Dyrsmid would have no paper clips left.

The results were drastic. Within 18 months, he was “bringing in $5 million to the firm.”

Clear calls this the Paper Clip Strategy, a visual way to track your progress.

You observe clear evidence you are progressing, and you feel satisfied seeing how you advance.

The Paper Clip strategy encourages good habits because it visibly rewards you.

There are other ways to use visual rewards, such as keeping a food journal or a workout log.

Clear’s favorite, however, is a habit tracker.

A habit tracker is any way you choose to track your habits.

It might be a calendar where you cross off days you’ve continued your habits, or a little booklet where you keep an ongoing record.

Folklore has it that Jerry Seinfeld uses a habit tracker to make sure he “never break[s] the chain” of writing jokes every day.

Clear believes “don’t break the chain” is a powerful mantra. Your goal should be to never skip a habit for more than a day.

If you can make sure you persist in your habits regularly and not break the chain, you’ll see drastic results and unlock your potential.

{P.S. I developed my own daily performance tracker, called Thrive Space™, which helped me close $14.1M in Annual Recurring Revenue in 10 months while average 7 hours of sleep per night}

Grab it here for free 👇

https://bit.ly/thrive-space-gated

Snag a copy of the book 📖👇

https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299