Джеймс Клир - Atomic Habits - Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

This is one reason why we continually grasp for the latest get-rich-quick or weight-loss scheme. New plans offer hope because we don’t have any experiences to ground our expectations. New strategies seem more appealing than old ones because they can have unbounded hope. As Aristotle noted, “Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.” Perhaps this can be revised to “Youth is easily deceived because it only hopes.” There is no experience to root the expectation in. In the beginning, hope is all you have.

How to Apply These Ideas to Business

OVER THE YEARS, I’ve spoken at Fortune 500 companies and growing start-ups about how to apply the science of small habits to run more effective businesses and build better products. I’ve compiled many of the most practical strategies into a short bonus chapter. I think you’ll find it to be an incredibly useful addition to the main ideas mentioned in Atomic Habits .

You can download this chapter at: atomichabits.com/business

How to Apply These Ideas to Parenting

ONE OF THE most common questions I hear from readers is something along the lines of, “How can I get my kids to do this stuff?” The ideas in Atomic Habits are intended to apply broadly to all of human behavior (teenagers are humans, too), which means you should find plenty of useful strategies in the main text. That said, parenting does face its own set of challenges. As a bonus chapter, I’ve put together a brief guide on how to apply these ideas specifically to parenting.

You can download this chapter at: atomichabits.com/parenting

Acknowledgments

I HAVE RELIED HEAVILY on others during the creation of this book. Before anyone else, I must thank my wife, Kristy, who has been indispensable throughout this process. She has played every role a person can play in the writing of a book: spouse, friend, fan, critic, editor, researcher, therapist. It is no exaggeration to say this book would not be the same without her. It might not exist at all. Like everything in our life, we did it together.

Second, I am grateful to my family, not only for their support and encouragement on this book but also for believing in me no matter what project I happen to be working on. I have benefited from many years of support from my parents, grandparents, and siblings. In particular, I want my mom and dad to know that I love them. It is a special feeling to know that your parents are your greatest fans.

Third, to my assistant, Lyndsey Nuckols. At this point, her job defies description as she has been asked to do nearly everything one could imagine for a small business. Thankfully, her skills and talents are more powerful than my questionable management style. Some sections of this book are as much hers as they are mine. I am deeply grateful for her help.

As for the content and writing of the book, I have a long list of people to thank. To start, there are a few people from whom I have learned so much that it would be a crime to not mention them by name. Leo Babauta, Charles Duhigg, Nir Eyal, and BJ Fogg have each influenced my thoughts on habits in meaningful ways. Their work and ideas can be found sprinkled throughout this text. If you enjoyed this book, I’d encourage you to read their writing as well.

At various stages of writing, I benefited from the guidance of many fine editors. Thanks to Peter Guzzardi for walking me through the early stages of the writing process and for a kick in the pants when I really needed it. I am indebted to Blake Atwood and Robin Dellabough for transforming my ugly and insanely long first drafts into a tight, readable manuscript. And I am thankful to Anne Barngrover for her ability to add a little class and poetic style to my writing.

I’d like to thank the many people who read early versions of the manuscript, including Bruce Ammons, Darcey Ansell, Tim Ballard, Vishal Bhardwaj, Charlotte Blank, Jerome Burt, Sim Campbell, Al Carlos, Nicky Case, Julie Chang, Jason Collins, Debra Croy, Roger Dooley, Tiago Forte, Matt Gartland, Andrew Gierer, Randy Giffen, Jon Giganti, Adam Gilbert, Stephan Guyenet, Jeremy Hendon, Jane Horvath, Joakim Jansson, Josh Kaufman, Anne Kavanagh, Chris Klaus, Zeke Lopez, Cady Macon, Cyd Madsen, Kiera McGrath, Amy Mitchell, Anna Moise, Stacey Morris, Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Taylor Pearson, Max Shank, Trey Shelton, Jason Shen, Jacob Zangelidis, and Ari Zelmanow. The book benefited greatly from your feedback.

To the team at Avery and Penguin Random House who made this book a reality, thank you. I owe a debt of special thanks to my publisher, Megan Newman, for her endless patience as I continually pushed back deadlines. She gave me the space I needed to create a book I was proud of and championed my ideas at every step. To Nina, for her ability to transform my writing while still retaining my original message. To Lindsay, Farin, Casey, and the rest of the PRH team for spreading the message of this book to more people than I could ever reach on my own. To Pete Garceau, for designing a beautiful cover for this book.

And to my agent, Lisa DiMona, for her guidance and insight at every step of the publishing process.

To the many friends and family members who asked “How’s the book going?” and offered a word of encouragement when I inevitably replied “Slowly”—thank you. Every author faces a few dark moments when writing a book, and one kind word can be enough to get you to show up again the next day.

I am sure there are people I have forgotten, but I keep an updated list of anyone who has influenced my thinking in meaningful ways at jamesclear.com/thanks.

And finally, to you. Life is short and you have shared some of your precious time with me by reading this book. Thank you.

—May 2018

Notes

IN THIS SECTION, I have included a detailed list of notes, references, and citations for each chapter in the book. I trust that most readers will find this list to be sufficient. However, I also realize that scientific literature changes over time and the references for this book may need to be updated. Furthermore, I fully expect that I have made a mistake somewhere in this book—either in attributing an idea to the wrong person or not giving credit to someone where it is due. (If you believe this to be the case, please email me at james@jamesclear.com so I can fix the issue as soon as possible.)

In addition to the notes below, you can find a full list of updated endnotes and corrections at atomichabits.com/endnotes.

INTRODUCTION

We all deal with setbacks :What about luck, you might ask? Luck matters, certainly. Habits are not the only thing that influence your success, but they are probably the most important factor that is within your control. And the only self-improvement strategy that makes any sense is to focus on what you can control.

The entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant :Naval Ravikant (@naval), “To write a great book, you must first become the book,” Twitter, May 15, 2018, https://twitter.com/naval/status/996460948029362176.

“ stimulus, response, reward” :B. F. Skinner, The Behavior of Organisms (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1938).

“cue, routine, reward” :Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (New York: Random House, 2014).

CHAPTER 1

just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games :Matt Slater, “How GB Cycling Went from Tragic to Magic,” BBC Sport, April 14, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/cycling/7534073.stm.

the Tour de France :Tom Fordyce, “Tour de France 2017: Is Chris Froome Britain’s Least Loved Great Sportsman?” BBC Sport, July 23, 2017, https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/40692045.