JAMES CLEAR | How To Build Habits That Last

(wind blowing) Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm joined by Mr. James Clear. How are you today?

Hello. Yeah, good to talk to you. I'm doing well.

Welcome to the show. Um, a lot of the listeners will have heard us talk at length about how much we loved Atomic Habits. It's been a- an absolute game changer for us this year. And-

Oh, thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah. It's, uh, it really is a, a big paradigm shift, um, for a lot of the things that we've been reading recently. It, it wasn't, they say that the best books are ones that tell you things that you already know, and a lot of the things in Atomic Habits, it pieced together in a way that I hadn't ever seen before a lot of the ancillary little bits and pieces and then compiled them into just stop being an idiot, this is what you (laughs) need to do.

(laughs)

So I'm super excited to go through it today.

Great. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about it too.

Brilliant. Um, so f- first and foremost, w- why do we need to be bothered about habits?

Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I mean, on one hand, like, everybody has habits, right? We're all building them all the time, whether you're thinking about it or not. So, um, that part, I think, is, provides a little bit of a, a reason why. If you're building habits anyway, then it kinda makes sense to understand what they are and how they work so that you can maybe build them in a way that benefits you rather than in a way that hinders you. And I think that is a deeper truth about habits, that they're kind of like a double-edged sword. You know? Like they can either build you or tear you down, and you need to understand the kind of fundamental pieces of them and how to adjust them so that you can make sure they're working for you. Um, which kinda naturally leads to a question of, like, what is a habit and why do we bother forming it at all? And I think, like, a simple way to describe it is that habits allow you to solve the problems of life with less energy and effort than you would otherwise need. And, you know, l- all life requires energy to exist. If you, if you don't have energy, then you don't survive. And so energy is very precious for that reason, and your brain is looking for ways to conserve it whenever possible. Um, you know, this makes just logical sense, right? Like if you imagine, like, our ancestors living on the savanna, if you could forage for berries in a patch that's 100 meters away, then why would you bother foraging for berries in a patch that's like 10,000 meters away or on the other side of the mountain or whatever, right? Like you're gonna seek the path of least resistance to get the results that you want. And habits are sort of a, a shortcut, a mental shortcut, that your brain uses to, to do that kind of thing on a daily basis. So take for example the habit of tying your shoe. Um, the first time you do it, you don't know how to tie your shoe and you have to think carefully about how to make the knots and someone has to teach you how to do it and so on. But after you do it 100 times or 1,000 times or 10,000 times, pretty soon you can tie your shoes while you're talking to somebody or thinking about your to-do list for the day. Um, you just pu- pretty much can do it on autopilot. And so in a small sense, tying a shoe is like a problem that you face on a daily basis and your brain has automated the solution, and habits allow you to do that in all different areas of life all the time. You, you automate the solutions to the recurring problems in life which means you can focus on other things and direct your attention elsewhere. So for that reason, habits are like so central to our experience that we often overlook them. Like you don't even really think about brushing your teeth or tying your shoes or unplugging the toaster after each use or all these other things that you do each day, but your habits are the thing that help you function and operate in the world in a more efficient manner. Then there's also like the deeper or bigger impact that habits have which, if you think about like the results that you want in life, most of your results are like a lagging measure of the habits that precede them. So, you know, your bank account is a lagging measure of your financial habits or your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits or your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. And so by, a lot of the time people think what they need is a different outcome. They think they need a bigger bank account or a lower number on the scale or, um, you know, more intelligence and wisdom, but actually what they need are the habits that precede those things. And so I think that's another reason why habits are really important and why to focus on them, uh, which is that habits are the leading indicator of all the lagging results that we really want and aspire to achieve in life.