The book, Atomic Habits, describes habits as, “Your brains automatic response to a repeatable event.” Think of it like getting a cup of coffee first thing in the morning or hitting snooze on your alarm clock morning after morning.
I’m only about a quarter of the way through with Atomic Habits so far. It’s been pretty eye opening thus far. Perhaps the biggest advice it gives is how to change your mindset to improve your habits.
The author, James clear, mentions that to build strong habits, you first change your identity. He offers one example of a smoker trying to quit. If someone offers them a cigarettes, replying “I don’t smoke” rather than, “I’m trying to quit” showcases a change in identity. The smoker now identifies as a non-smoker, rather than a smoker, and this change in mindset, can make the process of quitting much easier to follow through on time and time again.
I’m not really a morning person. But changing my identity to, “I am a morning person” will help me build the habit of waking up early. A morning person is much more likely to not hit snooze in the morning than someone who doesn’t identify as a morning person.
Now, I’m not going to get into if you want to identify as an attack helicopter…because that’s just crazy talk.
This book has been great and I’ll continue to update you.
What do you think? What are some tried and true methods on building habits? Let me know in the comments below!
– T
thefarmtraveler.com 