Power of Atomic habits

Atomic Habits by James Clear is based on the aggregation of marginal gains which is the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. For e.g. if you can get 1% better each day for one year, you'll end up 37 times better by the time, you're done. Conversely, if you get 1% worse each day for one year, you'll decline nearly down to zero. Changes that seem small and unimportant at first, will compound into remarkable results, if you're willing to stick with them for years.

"Habits are a double- edged sword. Bad habits can cut you down just as easily as good habits can build you up." 

What starts as a small win or minor setback accumulates into much more. Therefore, with the same habits you'll end up with same results but with better habits anything is possible.

"Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best are for making progress." 

A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. We need to solve problems at the system level i.e. fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.

"Goals create an either-or conflict i.e. you either achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. "

You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided. It is unlikely that the actual path through life will match the exact journey you had in mind when you set out. It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to one scenario, when there are many paths to success.

"True long-term thinking is a goal less thinking."

The purpose of setting goals is to win the game but the purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. It is not about any single accomplishment. It's about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.

"Improvements are temporary until they become a part of who you are."

True behaviour change is an identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation but the only reason you will stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity. Anyone can convince themselves to visit the gym once or twice but if you don't shift the belief behind the behaviour, then it is hard to stick with the long-term changes. 

"The biggest barrier to positive change at any level - individual, team or society - is identity conflict. " 

Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity you will fail to put them in action. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. 

Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that) but because they can change your beliefs about yourself. Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. And if a change is meaningful, it actually is big. That's the paradox of making small improvements.

"Keep your identity small. The more you let a single belief define you, the less capable you are of adapting when life challenges you."

When you cling too tightly to one identity you become brittle. Lose that one thing and you lose yourself. When chosen effectively an identity can be flexible rather than brittle. Like water flowing an obstacle your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them. The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to go beyond it. Bruce Lee's advice: "Be water, my friend."

"When you can't win by being better, you can win by being different."

If you can find a favourable environment, you can transform the situation from one where the odds are against you to one where they are in your favour. For example: Boiling water will soften a potato but harden an egg. You can't control whether you're an egg or potato, but you can decide to play a game where it's better to be hard or soft.

"Work hard on things that comes easy."

We should work hard on things that comes easy. Genes do not eliminate the need for hard work, they clarify it. They tell us what to work hard at. 

"The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom."

We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. Perhaps this is why, we get caught up in never ending cycle, jumping from one workout to the next, one diet to the next, one business to the next. As soon, as we see a slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy even if the old was still working. As Machiavelli noted, "Men desire novelty to such an extent that those who are doing well wish for a change as much as those who are doing badly."

"Happiness is simply the absence of desire."

Happiness arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. It is fleeting because a new desire always comes along. As Caed Budris, says:

"Happiness is the state between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming."

Likewise, suffering is the space between craving a change in state and getting it.

Note: - We can become rational and logical after we have been emotional. The primary mode of the brain is to feel; the secondary mode is to think.