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New Year’s is around the corner. And with that new year’s resolutions. It usually goes like this: You get super motivated for a couple of weeks, you’re doing the things you said you were gonna do. You hit the gym, you’re reading the books, you’re meditating for 2 hours every day. And then the motivation kind of disappears and with that your resolutions. My guess is everybody went through this at some point in their lives. I’ve tried to become a proper gym bro for years, with no success. But I want to make it count this year, and I assume you do as well.

So, the question is, how do we avoid this scenario happening again?

Why do some people fail and some succeed in this quest for New Year’s resolutions?

What is the secret sauce?

It all comes down to building the right habits.

That’s what we’ll be looking into today. And who better to learn from than the habit man himself – James Clear, who wrote the book on the topic – Atomic Habits.

In this episode I’ll summarize the main points from the book. You’ll learn why habits matter, how to think about them and we’ll break down the 4 part framework for building sustainable habits. There is a lot to go through so let’s get started.

Why Motivation Sucks

Most people, when they try to start a new habit, they rely on motivation. But as we found out in the beginning, motivation gets you so far. If you look at a habit like brushing your teeth, you don’t do it only when you’re motivated, you do it regardless how you feel. The activity has been repeated so many times you don’t have to think about it. And that’s the point we want to get to with the habits we want to develop.

These small things you do every day don’t seem to add up much in the short term, but in the long term, it’s what makes the biggest difference. Imagine you split yourself into two identical people. One person, over the course of a year, gets better 1% every day. And the other gets worse 1% every day. If you were to look at them after that year, you’d think they were two different people. And the only difference are those small, almost invisible actions taken every day.

Clear’s big idea in the book is – You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems. So it’s not about the big shiny goal, but the systems we develop to achieve it. It’s good to remember the winners and the losers have the same goal – it’s the habits that determine their success.

And these habits also influence our identity. Clear suggests that our ultimate goal should not be a one off goal, like running a marathon, but to become a runner. Because once you see yourself as a runner, it only makes sense you keep running every day. And it creates a virtuous cycle.

How to Build Good Habits

Now let’s talk about the how. How do you actually form good habits that stick?

Clear breaks down the process of habit creation into 4 Laws of Behavior Change – Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying. Let’s break these down:

First law is to Make it Obvious:

Because our brains pick up on visual cues all the time, we can set up our environment so we’re always reminded of the habit we want to develop. Do you want to start drinking water first in the morning? Put a glass of water right next to your bed. Do you want to start practicing guitar? Put it in the middle of your living room, where you can see it at all times. The two most common cues are time and place. If we want to increase our chances of doing the habit, choose where and when you’re gonna do it. Like – “I will read a book in my bed from 10:30 to 11 pm. The key thing to understand is that we are far more influenced by our environment than we like to admit. So instead of pushing against it, make it work for you.

Another trick you can do is pair your new habit with an old habit. This is called habit stacking. I used this trick when I wanted to start meditating in the morning. I already had a habit of drinking a glass of water after waking up, so I made a mental note that I will meditate for 3 minutes, after drinking the water. You can use your old habit as a cue for the new one.

The Second Law is to Make It Attractive:

Good habits tend to be boring in the beginning. So we want to make the process attractive, to make sure we keep doing it every day. For this, we can use what’s called temptation bundling. This simply means you pair the habit you need to do, with the one you enjoy doing. For example – If you want to exercise, you can make it more enjoyable by listening to podcasts or music. And you can take it further by setting a rule for yourself that you’ll only listen to podcasts when you’re exercising. Or if you want to read more books, set a reward for yourself, like, after reading 10 pages, I can eat my favorite cookies.

But what’s even more important to how attractive habits are, is our social environment. We imitate the people around us. If most of your friends are runners, you are more likely to pick up running. If most of your friends are alcoholics, well… But again, we can shape our social environment so it best suits us. You can join communities where the habit you want is considered normal, and cool. And even better, when you already have something in common with the group. So like, if you are a gamer, and want to get in shape, it’s better to join “The six pack gamer community” than “First time mom’s pilates community.” (I just made those up by the way.) And even if we don’t have access to physical communities, we can join online communities. Either way it’s really important to associate yourself with people who already do what you want to do.

The last trick for making it attractive, is a simple shift in the language we use. Instead of saying “I have to” or “need to”, you start saying “I get to”. Sometimes it feels like the good habits are a burden, like “ugh i need to exercise”. If you say “I get to exercise”, you turn the burden into an opportunity. You can focus on how by doing the exercise you will gain muscle and look better.

The Third Law is to Make It Easy:

This is probably the most overlooked step. People often set themselves up for failure by making their habits too complicated. In the beginning we have a tendency to ask ourselves “What can I achieve on my best day?” What we should be asking instead is “What can I achieve on my worst day?” The trick is to lower the barrier to entry to almost zero.

A very powerful trick is the two-minute rule. We reduce the habit to its two minute version. Our priority should be on just starting the habit. Once we have that down, we can improve on it. When I was starting out with exercise, all I did for about a month was 10 push ups in the morning. And it feels silly at first, because we want the results fast. But you have to remind yourself this is the long run, and eventually you will get to your desired routine, that gets you the results. But you need to start first.

Another important point, is to make the habit frictionless. Which means, we want to have the least amount of steps to starting the thing. If you want to start exercising, what is the path of least resistance? Is it going to the gym for 1 hour, or working out at home for 15 minutes? If you have to get dressed, drive to the gym, change to your workout clothes, your mind will find any excuse to not go.

And again, you can set up your environment so it’s easy to start. Like if you want to draw more, put the pencils right on your desk so they’re easy to reach.

So make it easy to start, and master the habit of showing up.

The Fourth Law is to Make It Satisfying:

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when we find it satisfying. The problem is, the bad habits provide immediate satisfaction, meanwhile good habits feel satisfying only after a while, once we start seeing the results. So we need to somehow reward ourselves for doing the habit. But it can’t be something that conflicts with the habit. If you reward yourself for exercising by eating a tub of ice cream and smoking a pack of cigars, that doesn’t make sense. But you could reward yourself with a tasty protein shake, for example.

We also like seeing progress. This is why using a habit tracker works so well to keep you motivated and help you stay on track (no pun intended). The habit tracker can have lots of different forms. It can be the classic of crossing off days in your calendar, or filling a jar up with ping pong balls, or paper clips. It just adds that little push to keep you going.

So that’s the four laws of behavior change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying.

What about the habits we want to get rid of? The same laws apply, but inverted. So make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, make it unsatisfying.

In practical terms, add a lot of friction, list out all the reasons why the current habit is terrible and ugly, and make it difficult to do. If you want to stop eating ice cream, the best thing you can do is to not buy it. That kind of thing.

Practical Tips and Tools for Building Habits

A couple more practical tips.

Overcoming Obstacles:

You will inevitably fall off the horse, metaphorically speaking. When you miss doing the habit, chill out, take a deep breath and get back on the horse the next day. One simple rule – never miss two days in a row. One day is an accident, two days and you’re starting a new behavior. Don’t fall into all or nothing thinking. It’s better to do the habit poorly than to miss it completely.

Accountability:

If you have difficulty with staying consistent, find an accountability partner. There is usually no cost to when we don’t do the habit. But being accountable to someone introduces immediate cost – we don’t want to be seen as irresponsible liars. And you can take it even further and set a penalty if you don’t do the habit. Like donate to charity you hate the most, and so on.

Final Words

So to recap. You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Small actions repeated over time create extraordinary results. The four laws of behavior change are – make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. Start out small and reduce the habit to its 2-minute version. Form the habit first and then improve on it. Modify your physical and social environment to make your new habit obvious and frictionless. Use habit stacking – pair your new habit with an old one. Treat yourself after doing the habit. Never miss your habit twice. Show up even on the bad days. That’s it.

That’s it for this episode. 2025 is approaching. There will be a lot of New Year’s resolutions. My challenge to you is start building that habit you’ve been putting off. Pick only one, and do the 2 minute version. You can do this. Thank you for listening and take care.