The byline says it all - "Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results". James Clear starts with the example of the British Cycling team that had never won anything major since 1908 (1 Olympic gold and no Tour de France in a century). The new coach Dave Brailsford brings in the concept of 'Aggregation of Marginal Gains'. They broke down everything that goes into riding a bike (the bike, equipment, clothes, mattresses, even the colour of bus etc) and improved it by 1%. When you put all these 1% gains together, you get a significant increase. By 2008 British cycling teams won 60% of the gold medals in the Olympics and later on went on to win 178 World Championships.
The maths behind this - 1% gain every day for a year results in a 37.78 times increase. 1% worse each day results in 0.03 times what you began with. The tiny gains end up making you 37 times better in a year.
James Clear says that to create this 1% change every day you need to focus on systems and not on goals. You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems he says which is absolutely true. He also mentions how a single goal can restrict your happiness, can be momentary while systems help you enjoy every part of the journey. So systems are what you focus on - after setting your goals
Change - At Identity, Systems and Outcome Levels
Change happens at three levels - identity, systems and outcome. If we look at change, in three concentric circles beginning with the outermost which is the what - "The Outcome" change, the second circle which is the how - "the Systems" change and the innermost which is the why - "the Identity change" we understand the wisdom of beginning with "why". If we start with the why - who we want to become - then we figure the 'how' in line with that and we achieve the results we want. True behaviour change is identity change he says. Be proud of who you are. Change the story you tell yourself. Think - who is the type of person you want to be? The ultimate form of motivation is when the habit becomes part of your identity. Once you get your pride involved, your identity will drive your habits. You become your habits. There's no more effort involved.
Why Humans Repeat or Avoid Behaviors
Studies show that behaviours followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and behaviours that produce unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience.
Our Feedback Loop
Our behaviour feedback loop is this - Cue- Craving - Response - Reward. Cue (the hint that begins the behaviour) and Craving (intensifying the need for the behaviour) are the problem phase while Response (the action that we take) and Reward (the feeling that we feel after going through with the behaviour) are the solution phase. This is the feedback loop of habits.
James has a simple formula to build and break habits. To build habits - make the cue obvious, make the craving attractive, make the response easy to do and make the reward more satisfying. To break habits go the other way - make the cue invisible, make the craving unattractive, make the response difficult and make the reward unsatisfying. James gives some techniques to build on these.
To build new habits To break habits
Cue Make it obvious Make it invisible
Craving Make it attractive Make it unattractive
Response Make it easy Make it difficult
Reward Make it satisfying Make it unsatisfactory
Making the Cue Obvious
Have a habits scorecard - write down all the things you do habitually (habits are those you do almost unconsciously) and check them off as positive, neutral or negative. This makes the habit and the cue obvious so you can take action on which habit to keep and which to drop.
Point and call - Since most habits happen without awareness, point and call like the Japanese Railways employees do or airlines pilots do - so it helps you do things with more awareness.
Implementation Intention - To start a new habit the two main cues are time and location. So create an implementation intention - "I will (exercise) at (6 am) in (the gym)". When you clearly write what your intention is, chances are high you will stick to it. There's a study done between three groups which were told to start exercising, were given motivational inputs and were asked to write an implementation intention - the third group acted. 35 to 38% of the first two groups exercised once a week while 91% of the third group exercised once a week (which is almost double the first two groups).
Habit stacking - Stack two habits one after another. After (I journal) I will (meditate) for (5 minutes). You can increase the stack so you get good habits going on after another in the same momentum.
Environment - You can change habits by changing the architecture and making things you need to do accessible and those you wish to avoid, inaccessible. We are guided by our vision so if you want to build a habit, make the thing obvious by and if you want to break a habit, make it invisible. There's a study where people's eating habits were changed simply by changing the position of where water was made available and where soda was made available in the canteen. Many people shifted to water. Make the cue BIG. James uses the principle of one space, one use to build good habits into the mind.
People with the best self-control are the ones who need to use it the least. Instead of will power, they optimise the environment.
Make the Craving Attractive
Temptation Bundling - Bundle your temptations together so it makes the craving attractive. Pair the ones you 'want' to build, with the ones you 'need' to build.
Remember, it's the anticipation - not fulfilment - that drives the action.
Our culture determines our behaviour - we imitate people close to us, the majority and powerful people. So if you wish to build habits, check if you are in the right environment, following the right social media groups, part of the right groups which have the same intention as you have.
Approval, respect and praise bring on repeat behaviour - so figure a way to get those after you perform an action.
Create a motivation ritual. This makes the craving more attractive.
Make the Response Easy
The big insight here is that when it comes to response, repetition is more important than one large effort. Many small repetitions on a regular basis have a much larger effect than one big effort. Also, we must keep in mind that the human mind prefers to operate keeping the law of least effort in mind.
Quantity versus quality - Always go for more repetitions than less when it comes to behaviour. The study where one group of photography students were asked to click maximum photos without worrying about quality and another group was asked only to click the single big picture showed that quantity people outscored quality people with better pictures.
Action vs motion - One must also be careful to understand that there is a difference between action and motion. Action produces results while motion is an activity that does not produce anything.
Addition by subtraction - This is a powerful concept - when we take out one point of friction every time, we have a very efficient system.
Keep things within reach (or out of reach) to reduce (or increase) friction
2 Minute rule - This is a brilliant tool. When you start a new habit, it should take less than 2 minutes to do. Do it for 2 minutes and win the decisive moments tat decide between should you or not. A two minute - walk, talk, read - is easier to handle than big plans.
Ritualise the process
Commitment Device - Like Victor Hugo who removed all formal clothes from his vicinity so he would not go out and thus committed to writing and finish his book or James himself who locks up his devices or social media account through the week to stay focused, commitment devices force you to work on your priorities.. take advantage of good intention before falling victim to temptation. You can make good habits inevitable and bad habits
Start one time actions for good habits - like starting SIPs so the effort of doing it continuously is reduced.
Make the Reward Satisfying
The basic principle is that what is rewarded is repeated and what is punished is avoided. also, immediate rewards get immediate actions and delayed rewards may not get repeated actions.
There are many actions we take but if the reward is not satisfying and immediate, we don't repeat it. There is the story of how handwashing as a practice was being promoted in Lahore but the problem was that people were aware and were washing but not properly. To make them take the action properly, they used an expensive handwash which gave a nice perfume and some
To avoid something pay that amount to fund something nice for yourself - like if you avoided a creamy dessert, pay the amount you would have paid for that into your travel fund or buy-something-nice-for-yourself fund.
To get a habit to stick - feel immediately successful. Celebrate small wins. Build that habit.
Visual measures help - ticks and pins after every success, or after every achievement in the process, keeps you sticking to the habit. The story of how a young banker became successful by starting the day with 120 marbles in a glass jar and after every sales call he would transfer one to the other jar. The visual in the jar prodded him to complete all calls.
Record and monitor each day - Recording and monitoring your progress each day helps keep track. If we make it visible on the board - even more.
Don't miss twice - To stay on track, be clear not to miss twice. Once is ok, but not twice, or you'll soon fall off.
Find accountability partners - whatever be your work, having an accountability partner helps. Just to stay honest.
Habit contracts - Make Habit Contracts with people around you - make it a rule or the law and enforce it and the habit sticks.
Habit + deliberate practice = Mastery
Habits and Growth
The Growing Habit - James talks of how to grow to the next level we need to follow the Goldilocks rule - push ourselves beyond the current comfort zone and get into the next level. Here, the Goldilocks zone is the zone that is beyond your boredom zone and below your failure zone. The sweet spot comes on the edge of your comfort zone.
Another fine concept he shared is the one about Career Best Effort (CBE) used by a basketball team where every player was asked to improve on their career-best performance by 1%. This growth was tracked and ranked on both skill and performance as well as unsung hero acts where the person did something for the team.
James says we can also stay honest and review our progress by way of an Annual Review and an Integrity review. But what I really liked was what he stressed at the end about how habits can become part of our identity and can make us rigid.
"In the beginning, repeating a habit is essential to build up your new identity. But those same beliefs can hold you back from the next level growth. Your pride encourages you to deny your weak spots and prevents your growth.
The more sacred an idea is to us, i.e. the more deeply it is tied to our identity - the more strongly we will defend it against criticism. The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.
Avoid making any single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are. Keep your identity small. The more you let a single belief define you, the less adaptable you are when things need to change to grow to the next level. When you cling too tightly to one identity, ou become brittle. Lose that one thing and you lose yourself.'
Be flexible. Be like water. Let go of the old identity to embrace the new. And build a new story.
The hard and stiff will be broken,
The soft and supple will prevail - Lao Tzu
James says we need to check periodically if our old habits ad beliefs are still serving us. Lack of self-awareness is poison he says. Reflection and review is the antidote.
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I loved the book. The idea of 1% improvement every day is brilliant. Needs practice. I am going to do it from today on in my work area, my growth area. The idea of pinning change to identity and not change is superb, the two-minute rule is brilliant as is the one about accountability partners. And of course the one about the environment guiding your behaviours - keep things you want to do handy and hide things you don't want to access.
