Vandaag bespreken we het boek Atomic Habits of Elementaire gewoontes van James Clear.

De ondertitel is Tiny changes, Remarkable results. Er zijn meer dan 15 miljoen exemplaren van dit boek verkocht.

De ondertitel op de Nederlandse versie is, kleine veranderingen, groot resultaat : een makkelijke en bewezen manier om goede gewoontes te creëren en te breken met slechte gewoontes.

James Clear is ondernemer, auteur (artikelen, wekelijkse email en dit boek) en spreker, hij doet veel onderzoek voor zijn schrijfwerk. Hij kreeg een ernstig ongeluk als sporter en begon met kleine gewoontes er weer bovenop te komen. De start van zijn zoektocht naar gedrag en veranderingen.

In 2012 begint hij een blog en een email lijst. In 2015 was deze lijst gegroeid tot 200.000 en tekende hij een boek deal, en daar kwam dit boek uit. Deze maand, februari 2024 lanceerde hij de Atoms app voor iOS en Android volgt. https://jamesclear.com

Tom las de Nederlandse versie en ik de Engelse want die stond al op mijn Kindle. Vandaar dat je hieronder Engelse fragmenten uit zijn boek vindt die mij aanspreken.

Inhoud:

The Fundamentals - Why tiny changes make a big difference

The 1st Law - Make it obvious

The 2nd law - Make it attractive

The 3rd law - Make it easy

The 4th law - Make it satisfying

Advanced tactics

The Fundamentals - Why tiny changes make a big difference

Hfdstk 1

If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.

Results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Hfdstk 2

Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become.

The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.

This is a gradual evolution. We do not change by snapping our fingers and deciding to be someone entirely new.

We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit.6 We are continually undergoing microevolutions of the self.

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Hfdstk 3 - het proces wordt uitgelegd

Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it. In fact, the people who don’t have their habits handled are often the ones with the least amount of freedom.

The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. (The Power of habit - Duhigg)

Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?

The 1st Law - Make it obvious

Hfdstk 4

Before we can effectively build new habits, we need to get a handle on our current ones. This can be more challenging than it sounds because once a habit is firmly rooted in your life, it is mostly nonconscious and automatic. If a habit remains mindless, you can’t expect to improve it. As the psychologist Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent.

We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives. That’s the origin of the Habits Scorecard, which is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behavior. To create your own, make a list of your daily habits.