Atomic Habits: Control Your Habits, Control Your Life

The Power of the Compound Interest of Small Changes

“Sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” - William James

Good habits will build your life, yet we often turn a blind eye to small changes. We ignore them because we often convince ourselves that massive success requires action on a massive scale. Consequently, many people overlook the value of small daily improvements and end up procrastinating time and time again.

An even more fatal blow is that we often lose our persistence because we do not fully understand the enormous latent value that comes from incremental changes. But these small things are exactly how we create compound interest.

In Atomic Habits, a formula is mentioned: If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you will end up 37 times better by the time you are done. Conversely, if you get 1% worse each day for one year, your current capability will decline nearly to zero.

Many people view this as a mechanical calculation, but I hope you will set that aside for a moment and verify this formula for yourself. When we have not yet started to change anything, concluding too early is merely an excuse.

Small changes can create surprising effectiveness because maintaining habits is about creating compound interest for your own life. Look at this chart of the "Plateau of Latent Potential": When doing something, we often idealize our actions, assuming the goal is a linear path upward because we always expect immediate results. But in reality, implementing a good habit is a curve.

In the early stages of adjusting a habit, you will see this curve initially dip downward. At this point, when no significant difference is visible, people often feel discouraged and doubt whether the efforts they have put in are worth it. This downward curve is nothing less than the "Valley of Disappointment," where many people fall and give up halfway.

However, at this moment, you must believe that once you can persistently break through the critical point, the results will certainly appear. This is a common characteristic of any compounding process: The most powerful results are always delayed.

Changing habits is like a Chinese bamboo tree: During the first 5 years, no matter how ideal the environment, we can hardly feel it growing. But after 5 years, like a miracle, it begins to grow at a rate of 30cm per day and can reach a height of 27m after 6 weeks.

It turns out those 5 years were the time the bamboo was accumulating potential. During that period, the bamboo grew its roots deep into the ground, just waiting for the day to soar high. In truth, the deeper the roots, the larger the tree; with such a change, how could one not become a great talent? Therefore, live like a Chinese bamboo tree; always remember that no matter how small a change is, it has value.

Focus on Systems Instead of Goals

According to the author of Atomic Habits, if you only aim at the destination, you will fail. If you only look at the desired result, mentally, it is no different from locking yourself into a narrow perspective.

All the potential within any goal contains a fantasy: "Once I reach the goal, I will be happy." This perspective is like a shackle; it causes you to delay joy. But when you reach it, you certainly won't be truly happy; sometimes, it is replaced by a strange sense of emptiness because you are already hoping for the next milestone.

When you stare at a specific goal, the motivation within you is "I must achieve that," and this motivation pushes you forward. But once you reach the finish line, this fire of motivation will also vanish.

That is why many people return to their old state and old habits once they have completed a set goal. You must remember that practicing a habit is not about aiming for a goal to win at all costs, but about building a system of habits with cycles that become prevalent gradually and continuously.

The best way to maintain your spirit, according to James Clear, is to focus on the process, to focus on the present. You don't need to save up happiness; you will be truly happy right now and throughout the process of maintaining that habit. This spirit will certainly make it easier for you to be persistent and resilient.

The Secret to Maintaining Habits: Changing Identity

Next, James Clear states that the secret to maintaining habits is knowing your identity. According to research, behind every system of actions is a system of beliefs, and behavior that is inconsistent with identity will not last long.

What does this mean? Before you want to do something, let your belief become that person. That is, before performing a habit, you must identify who you want to become. Your belief about who you are will decide your behavior. The stronger the belief, the more consistently the behavior will be repeated; and the more the behavior is repeated, the more the belief will be reinforced, and your identity will become clearer.

This is a sustainable and long-term growth cycle. For example, if you want to maintain a running habit, you need to define your identity as an athlete. When you want to read more to write books or content, you must consider yourself a creator. If you don't know yourself before acting, you will only do it superficially, or find it difficult and forced during the process. Therefore, remember that habits are the way you embody who you are.

From this perspective, let us use reverse thinking for a moment to realize one thing: we must stop labeling ourselves or others. For example, parents often label their children as "lazy," "careless," or "playful" whenever they see them watching TV. These labels act like a prophecy, and if you keep labeling repeatedly like that, they can come true.

The 4-Step Logic of Habit Formation

In the next section, the author of Atomic Habits will guide us to clearly understand how a habit operates before we act. Specifically, follow these 4 steps: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward.

• Cue: When you hear the notification sound of a Facebook message, this is the cue.
• Craving: You immediately want to know who messaged you; this is the craving.
• Response: Then you reach out your hand to pick up the phone and open the message; this is the response.
• Reward: Finally, when you finish reading the message, you know what they want to say; this has satisfied your need, and that is the reward.

Almost every action in our daily lives is based on this 4-step principle. It is scary in that once it starts operating, it cannot be stopped. For example, you tell yourself you will read 20 pages tonight, but as soon as you sit on the sofa, you immediately pick up your phone, lie down, open Facebook, and scroll through TikTok. These actions are a chain of behaviors in a habit routine you formed previously; they cause you not to think at all, just to act automatically. Thus, you must understand this principle to overcome bad habits and build good ones.

4 Steps to Accurate Action

If you have accidentally fallen into the error above, do not blame yourself anymore. Because every mistake can be forgiven, and according to the author of Atomic Habits, you have 4 steps to take action.

Important Reminders from Atomic Habits

There are many valuable messages from Atomic Habits. According to Reading To Heal, it can be summarized in a few points:

First, the entire book emphasizes a core point: building habits is a daily accumulation; it is a compounding process and a persistent investment of time. Because time is finite, you need to discover the direction in which you are skilled: "Do things that you find interesting but others find tedious." The sign that you are suited for something is whether you can endure the hardships of that task more easily than most people. Others feel suffering, but you find it manageable; it doesn't challenge you, or you feel very much in enjoyment while doing it.

Second, do not rely too much on habits. Sometimes making a task natural can result in mediocrity. Being too dependent on habits can prevent us from having breakthroughs. To avoid this, put yourself into deliberate practice. The highest state of deliberate practice is entering the state of "Flow" (from the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). Flow is not a habit; Flow is what you need to focus on absolutely to do even better and gradually become a master.

The final point is that we need to frequently reflect and review ourselves; do not let your identity "kidnap" you. If you rely too much on beliefs and personal identity when forming habits, you will feel extremely lost, disappointed, and weak when they are not achieved.

In conclusion, the most valuable message of Atomic Habits is: These tiny habits will not simply add up; they have a multiplying relationship, stacking upon one another and eventually creating a synergistic effect that completely changes your life. After forming a new habit, it will trigger a series of other positive habit changes.

For me personally, one wonderful habit I feel happy about is having formed the habit of reading. Through reading, I see that I "do not know yet" and realize surprising changes.

I wish all of us success in finding the leverage for our lives and using the habit-building system as a tool to make life more meaningful.