Do you have trouble getting your habits to stick? Or maybe you have trouble breaking bad habits that keep you from realizing your full potential? Either way, you won’t want to miss today’s episode with James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits and creator of the Habits Academy. James’ writing combines ideas from a wide range of disciplines including biology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, and is focused on how we can create better habits, make better decisions, and live better lives. James joins me today to talk about his new books, Atomic Habits, which is available on October 16th. We talk about why habits are so important to James, the key difference between goals and systems, and why identity-based habits are better than outcome-based habits. We dive into the 4 Laws of Behavior Change, talk about why “how long” is the wrong question to ask when building habits, and James explains what to do when your habits break down.

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Cheat Sheet

Why habits are so important to James Clear 2:15

Why he believes habits are better for creating progress than  goals 5:47

Outcome-based habits vs identity-based habits 9:59

Why genes can tell you where to work hard 18:38

Four laws for behavior change 20:47

The inversion of the four laws for habits that you want to break 27:47

A simple formula for creating habits 33:09

Three different groups that we tend to imitate habits from 39:05

Decisive moments where you make the choice to change your habit or not 44:43

How to get back into a habit after you break the chain 50:58

Links

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

JamesClear.com

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Connect with James Clear

@JamesClear

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