Atomic Habits Book Review on The Sales Podcast

Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... In the same way we get a lot of power from splitting tiny atoms in the form of nuclear energy, you can unleash great power in your life with tiny changes Your habits shape your identity The four steps to building better habits Make it obvious Make it attractive Make it easy Make it satisfying ...the aggregation of marginal gains." ~Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of the British Cycling team Massive success does not always require massive action Over time, a tiny improvement can make a huge difference Habit improvements compound like money compounds with interest Be patient Be disciplined Don't slide back into your old routines and habits On a flight from L.A. to NYC, if the plane is 3.5 degrees off course, it will miss NYC by 225 miles and land in D.C. Success is the product of daily habits Be more concerned with your trajectory than your results Your outcomes are lagging indicators of your efforts, your habits You get what you repeat Good habits make time your ally Positive and negative compounding habits Productivity vs. stress Knowledge vs. negative thinking Relationships vs. rage Breakthrough moments come after long, focused periods of invisible work Bamboo Cancer Business wins The Plateau of Latent Potential Change can take years...before it happens all at once Mastery requires patience People call you an overnight success The Valley of Disappointment The results of our efforts are often delayed All big things come from small beginnings Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak tree Building a good habit is like nurturing a delicate rose one day at a time Forget about goals, focus on systems Goals define the results you want, systems are the steps you take to get those results The only way to win is to get better every day Bill Walsh, Super Bowl-winning coach of the 49s said, "The score takes care of itself." Goals are good for setting direction, systems are best for making progress Winners and losers have the same goals Goal setting suffers from survivorship bias Achieving a goal is only a momentary change You must address the cause, not just the symptom You need better systems With the proper input, the output will take care of itself Goals restrict your happiness Goals create an "either-or" conflict A systems-first mentality is the antidote Goals are at odds with long-term progress It's a yo-yo effect We want to do more than win the game. Systems help us to continue playing the game. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems Focus on 1% improvement Make small, easy-to-implement changes Why is it so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones? We try to change the wrong thing We try to change in the wrong way Three layers of behavior change Outcome (Get) Processes (Do) Identity (Believe) Most of the time we work from the outside in We need to work from the inside out, i.e., from the identity to the process to the outcome Shift the focus from what you want to achieve to who you want to become "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm trying to quit." "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm not a smoker." Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity Take pride in yourself and you'll be motivated to maintain the habits True behavior change is identity change Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are Become a reader Become a runner Become a musician Get out of your cognitive slumber "I'm terrible with directions." "I'm not a morning person." "I'm horrible at remembering names." You create your own reality of negativity Identity conflict is your main barrier to positive change You are self-sabotaging because of your negative identity Progress requires unlearning So how do you form your identity? Your beliefs are learned and then conditioned through experience In other words, your habits embody your identity The word identity is derived from the Latin words essential, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly So your identity is literally your "repeated beingness." The more evidence you have for a belief, i.e., "I'm terrible with names," the more strongly you will believe it. The process of building habits is the process of becoming yourself Fortunately, meaningful change does not require radical change If a change is meaningful, it is big! To change who you are, change what you do. Trust yourself. Learn to trust yourself by doing small habits repeatedly that bring about the small results you're seeking You don't have to be perfect. You don't need a unanimous vote to become a new you. Just give yourself new evidence of your new self to create your new identity Who do you want to be? What do you want to stand for? What are you principles and value? Who do you wish to become? Maybe you have some big goals. Write those down then work backward to figure out what you need to do to get there. "I want to write a book (outcome-based). Who is the type of person who writes books? Someone who is consistent, disciplined, and reliable. Okay. I am a consistent, reliable, disciplined person (identity-based)." This is a feedback loop. It's a two-way street Focus on becoming the right type of person you need to be and the outcome will take care of itself Know who you want to be. Habits help you become that someone. Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Order the book by James Clear, "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones' by James Clear