Habits are compound interest for self-improvement | Atomic Habits

Small habits, big power

In the first chapter, the author points out the importance and influence of habits. Having a good habit will make you improve by 0.01 every day. After one year, the 365th power of (1.01) is equal to 37.78. However, if you regress by 0.01 every day, the 365th power of (0.99) is 0.03, and it will approach zero after one year! The power of little habits cannot be underestimated!

Why is it so hard to break bad habits?

The author believes that the best way to change habits is to change "identity," because behavior often reflects one's own identity. The difference between an identity and a goal is: reading a book (habit) vs. becoming a reader (identity). For example, when you think you are a fitness person, you will naturally go to the gym at a fixed time to exercise.

The author cites himself as an example. He did not start out as a writer, but as he published more and more articles, his identity as a writer gradually grew, and habit became his path to identity transformation.

Great way to build new habits

The new habit must be very specific, including detailed time and place, not just a short description like "exercise every day", it needs to be something like "I will do (a certain event) at (a time), at a (a place)." For example: "I do (writing) at (at the desk) (every day at 16:00)."

You also prepare the things you need for the activity in advance. For example, if you want to develop the habit of reading before going to bed, put the book you want to read on the bedside in the morning, and this book will become an obvious visual cue. Deliberately create habit-triggering situations to help your new habit integrate into your life.

In addition, you can use the habit stacking method to tie the desired behavior to the things you must do every day, such as "exercise for 10 minutes before bathing", use the inertia that has been formed to promote new habits, and let the previous behavior become yours The switch for new habits.

The stasis period of the latent power

We tend to expect progress to be linear, hoping that efforts will yield results sooner. This picture shows that the results of our efforts often come late. However, the efforts are not in vain, they are just stored. It is very likely that we are just in the valley of disappointment. After we have survived, we will see the value of our previous efforts.

I like this picture very much, and I also saved this picture when I wrote the experience of this book. Later, when I want to make fun of it and don’t want to write, I will click it to remind myself.

Thank you for seeing everyone here, I'm Ruwen.

The reason for opening the account is to urge myself to continue writing. This is one of the habits I want to cultivate. I used to envy people who have a lot of excellent writing works, but I lacked motivation to practice (and I was lazy). This time I finally decided to open an account. tried. I am still familiar with this platform, please advise!

I wish all Matters good health and well-being!

2021/07/08 Ruwen