Jan 5, 2023
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
James Clear is an expert in behavior change. He is the author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Atomic Habits, it's sold more than 1 million copies! I first discovered James Clear many years ago when he started publishing articles on his website and sending out a fantastic newsletter that now has over 1 million subscribers. The way he describes things like goal-setting, how to be productive, and how to make habits that stick is easy to understand and put into action.
Many people attribute failing to break bad habits or failure to stick to new habits to a lack of willpower. They think the problem is them. But James Clear says, “If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” We talk about how to create an environment that makes it easy to make habits stick. We talked about the 2-minute rule (I've talked about this before as well- the importance of just setting the goal to show up). We also discussed the difference between motion and action (learning about doing something versus actually doing something).
And quite possibly the most powerful idea with habit change is the idea of identity-based habits and how to measure them. James Clear says, "Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat."
I'm so thankful for James Clear's work. I've used his research in my speeches, articles, and books because no one can create clarity as he can. This episode is a gamechanger, and so is his book, Atomic Habits.