Quick 4 Laws of James Clear to Build Good Habits

Hello, lovelies! I hope you are all having a great time this week. While I am trying to balance my work & life together, something just flashed my mind on how do simple habits help you succeed each new day. So I got to read a super famous book written by James Clear, ‘Atomic Habits’. He knows that real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions – doing just two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes earlier, or reading just one more page. He calls them atomic habits.

“These small changes will have a transformative effect on your career, your relationships & your life.”

The four laws of Behavior Change is a framework, as it provides a simple set of rules for creating good habits & breaking bad ones. We can think of each aw as a lever that influences human behavior. When the levers are in the right positions, creating good habits is effortless. And when they are in the wrong positions, it is nearly impossible. Let me elaborate on the 4 laws in detail to you:

The 1st Law: Make it obvious:

The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your current habits before you can even change them. ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life & you will call it fate’. So jot down your daily habits in a paper or notepad beside you.

Here’s a sample of a list:

· Wake up

· Turn off Alarm

· Check my phone

· Go to the washroom

· Weigh me

· Take a shower

· Brush my teeth

· Put on deodorant

· Hang up the towel to dry

· Get dressed

· Make a cup of tea

And so on….

Once you have a full list, look at each behavior & ask yourself. ‘Is this a good habit, a bad habit, or a neutral habit?’ For a good habit add ‘+’, for the bad one, add ‘-‘ & for a neutral one write ‘=’. And the list might look like this:

· Wake up (=)

· Turn off Alarm (=)

· Check my phone (-)

· Go to the washroom (=)

· Weigh myself (+)

· Take a shower (+)

· Brush my teeth (+)

· Put on deodorant (+)

· Hang up the towel to dry (+)

· Get dressed (=)

· Make a cup of tea (+)

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The goal is to simply notice what is going on with yourself. Observe your thoughts without judgment or internal criticism. Don’t blame yourself for your faults. You’re getting yourself to acknowledge the need for action—and that can make all the difference.

The 2nd Law: Make it Attractive:

The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming. Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every habit that is highly habit-forming- taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media—is all associated with higher levels of dopamine. And whenever dopamine rises, so does your motivation to act. It is an anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take an action. Temptation bundling is a trick that works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do. Here is your activity 2

1. After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].

2. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].

If you want to check Facebook, but you need to exercise more:

1. After I pull out my phone, I will do ten burpees (need).

2. After I do ten burpees, I will check Facebook (want).

So, doing the thing you need to do means, you get to do the things you want to do.

The 3rd Law: Make it Easy:

The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition. You don’t need to map out every feature of a new habit. You just need to practice it. This is the 1st takeaway of the 3rd law: You just need to get your reps in.

We are motivated to do what is easy. The more energy required, the less likely it is to occur. The less energy a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur. And yeah, every habit has an obstacle to getting really what you want. Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life. You are more likely to go to the gym if it is on the way to your work because stopping doesn’t add much friction to your lifestyle.

The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy.

The 4th Law: Make it Satisfying:

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. The human brain is evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards. What is immediately rewarded is repeated. And what is immediately punished is avoided. To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful –even if it’s in a small way.

One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress. A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit –like marking X on a calendar. As habit trackers are other visual forms of measurement that can make your habits more satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress.

Hence with these 4 laws, James Clear has brought us clear evidence that “Tiny Changes brings Remarkable Changes”. Follow these laws to build Easy and Proven effects to Build good habits & Break Bad ones. Hope I have made the laws very clear to the point. Do hit a like button if you find this blog very useful to build your habit, would Love to know that.