What are Atomic Habits? Part II

Part two of understanding and using habits for your health and freedom

Use Habits to Create Your Systems, Not To Reach Your Goals

Are your habits helping you achieve your goals?  First consider that goals might not be the most beneficial way to get what you want.  Incredibly, Atomic Habits says that SYSTEMS are what get you what you want, not goals.  To understand this better, we need to back up a couple steps here.

Try asking yourself what are your systems that you use to get what you want?  Since you created your habits, you are also able to dissolve them or make new ones. When you do this, you start to change who you are.  So, achieving goals is really not about having something different, but rather, becoming someone different.

Who Are You?

This question, who are you?, is profound and possibly the most fundamental question humans ask of themselves.  In looking at Atomic Habits, Clear says that we ARE the person who DOES a thing.  It’s about behavior leading to identity.

It does not require a radical change to make a meaningful change in your life.  Small habits are required that will then lead to your new identity (as in a person who goes to the gym every week eventually identifies as a health enthusiast).

Briefly, the book promotes these four laws of behavior changes:

1. Decide the type of person you want to be
2. Prove it to yourself with small wins
3. Imagine exactly who the type of person is that could reach your kind of goal?
4. What would that person do?

Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment.  Instead, change the systems and the results take care of themselves.

Motivation Isn’t Enough

You might start a habit due to motivation, but you only stick to it long-term is when that habit becomes your identity.  You won’t like to contradict your identity, so your habits will become easy to keep after your identity is clear.

For example, Atomic Habits says this (in effect):

“Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it.  Once you’ve cleaned your room, you’ve reached your goal.  However, unless you change your sloppy habits you will have a messy room again soon and will need to find the motivation to clean it again.”

So here you can see that the goal is only temporary and the result of a clean room won’t be a habit until you create systems that you employ a little each day to keep the room from becoming messy in the first place!

Fall In Love With The Process

In the end, when you create systems that you repeat enough to become habits, then you will likely find much more enjoyment in life.  The process is the journey and the journey brings you to the result.  Enjoy the journey or the result will not be to your liking either.

The cycle of endless refinement and improvement are processes needed to lead an enjoyable life, not simply reaching a goal and then stopping and looking around for another one to chase.

So, decide who you want to be, not what to do or even how to do it.  Let the how come later.  You can change who you are in any moment.  Ask the first question then take the action that you believe embodies that person.

Then decide again on who you will be next.  Endless creation leads to a more enjoyable life.

In the final part of this three part series, I’ll explain how to implement to get what you say you want and sum up the entire plan to get your habits serving you and making your life more to your liking.