Book Review: Atomic Habits
Book Author: James Clear
This book is about behavior change. There are four principles that are derived from the habit loop.
The habit loop is:
- the cue – what starts a behavior
- the craving – the anticipation of reward
- the action – doing the behavior
- the reward – the feedback for the action
If you want to add a habit:
- make the cue obvious
- make the craving as strong as possible (fantasize)
- make the action as easy as possible
- make the reward tasty
If you want to remove a habit:
- make the cue obscure
- make the craving weak (tell yourself how terrible or indifferent you are to it)
- make the action as hard as possible
- make the reward terrible
Practical example could be quitting smoking, the current stack might look like:
- cue – seeing your cigarettes, seeing someone smoking, or getting stressed
- craving – thinking about how it will relax your or whatever
- action – pulling out your pack from your pocket and lighting up
- reward – the “relaxation” or head rush
We can make the cue less obvious by hiding the cigarettes outside in the trunk of our car. Avoid content and people that smoke be they friends or family. Avoiding stressors if possible by cutting out environments or behaviors that cause stress.
We can reduce the craving by everytime we do get cued and think about smoking we overlay negative thoughts or thoughts that resonate with a new identify. For example, “oh, a smoke sounds so good” but I’m a healthy person and smoking isn’t healthy. That’s not me anymore. I won’t be mind controlled by a paper cartridge.
Then, making the action difficult. Don’t have a lighter in the house. You then have to drive somewhere to get a lighter. Or at least add friction to lighting up. Maybe everytime you want to smoke you have to grab from the trunk of your car and smoke outside. Then you replace it back into the trunk. This adds several steps to the action of taking a smoke.
Then, while you are smoking you can repeat the new identity, “this isn’t me, this is nasty, I’m going to smell bad, etc.” negative thoughts – not about yourself! – but about the behavior.