Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the prospect of making significant life changes? Maybe you have set ambitious goals, only to find yourself struggling to make progress, becoming disheartened and losing both confidence and focus. We can all relate to this! Last week, the Thrive Advisory team had the privilege to attend a Master Class led by James Clear in collaboration with the Growth Faculty – and we were reminded of the transformative power of small habits!
We have been fans of James Clear’s for several years, finding his insights on habit formation truly game-changing for us as individuals (both personally and professionally).His work has influenced how we work with our clients at the individual and team levels, as they seek to perform at a peak level, deliver on their purpose and potential, yet balance it with a wellbeing focus so they can both strive and thrive.
And so, reinvigorated and reinspired by hearing these messages from the legend himself, we are excited to share some of the key insights from the Master Class, based on his book Atomic Habits. Focusing on those small, seemingly insignificant habits consistently, can lead to impactful transformation. For those of you who have not seen his work, the key premise to setting a new habit lies in following the four levers or “laws” set out below:
If seeking to break a habit, you take the inverse approach:
Atomic Habits is a veritable goldmine of wisdom when it comes to habit formation and driving behavioural change, and it is difficult to cover it all or begin to do it justice in one post. Here are some quotes and insights from the session that really resonated with us:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
“If there is a gap between your goals and systems, systems will win.”
Conventional wisdom has us very preoccupied with setting objectives for ourselves. This gem reminds us that it’s not enough to set lofty goals. Thriving isn’t about wishful thinking; it’s about creating systems and habits that move you closer to your goals. Instead, we need to pay close attention to how we curate our environment in a way that helps us to drive towards incrementally achieving these goals.
“You need consistency more than intensity.”
Going for a run for the first time in years and expecting to be able to smash out 10kms isn’t just unreasonable; it’s counterproductive. Many of us (and our clients), have a perfectionist streak that can make developing new habits particularly difficult. However, reminding ourselves that a habit needs to be established before it can be optimised, reminds us to focus on first creating the habit, however small / insignificant / imperfect it may seem.
Habit stacking is a great way of making a small start. You take a habit you already do consistently, like making your morning coffee, and ‘stack’ a new habit you want to develop on top of it. It is a simple but powerful way to seamlessly integrate positive changes into your daily routine, making it easier to stick with and see real progress.
“Design for your worst day.”
We’re all for optimism, but designing a habit for you at your best might be self-defeating. James Clear advises to consider and plan for the opposite. After all, if you can manage to stick with the habit on your worst day, any other day should be a (relative) breeze.
We need to plan for the inevitable change, challenge, (dare we suggest chaos!) that life will throw our way and knock us off course. From a psychological perspective, Thrive’s build would be that you need to plan for the inevitable psychological resistance you will experience when making change at the individual, team or organisational level. We advise our clients to seek to understand, anticipate and plan for inevitable resistance, emotion or delays at the individual, team and organisational level.
In these instances, we draw on a few models of discontinuous change (behaviour change is not linear and progress will stall and metrics will go backwards) and Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model regarding stages of change, where a “relapse” is to be expected given how difficult it is to drive change. We have to expect this, adjust expectations according to the shifts in conditions we face, give ourselves grace and find a way to recommit with grit and tenacity; however small the act may seem.
“Never miss twice.”
This foundational principle is a mantra we live by. When our coaching clients ask for the “net-net” of habit formation, this is one of the pro tips for planning for your worst day. Despite your best planning and intentions, it is almost inevitable to forget, skip or miss a habit as you begin to make change. Whilst we all strive for consistency in our daily / weekly habits, we need to remind ourselves that missing once isn’t the end of the world, and that ‘never missing twice’, is where the magic happens. It is crucial not to let a single lapse become an excuse for self-defeating, self-flagellation or abandoning the habit altogether. By promptly resuming the habit and preventing it from slipping through the cracks again, you will not only maintain progress but also build resilience against future disruptions.
During the Q&A session, James made a clear distinction between “Motion”, an act of preparation and “Action”, the act of actually doing the thing that forms the habit. His fitness example was about researching gyms or specialists versus actually working out, stating, “You can speak to a Personal Trainer as many times as you like, but it is not going to be the thing that actually improves your fitness!”
This resonated with us as a common form of procrastination can be a tendency to focus on or get stuck on planning elements in the “‘Motion”‘ category. Planning to complete an action can feel like making progress, without having to employ the courage to take the action, so it’s easy to get stuck in the motion phase.
He recommends starting with an action that will take 2 minutes as a way of becoming unstuck and addressing any potential for “I don’t have time for this change” resistance. At first blush, for many, this seems too insignificant a time commitment to be worthwhile, but it is a step towards your goal while addressing procrastination, perfectionism or resistance.
“Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.”
This quote is a potent reminder of how the actions we take in this moment have the potential to shape our future. It reminds us to examine our actions versus our intentions and it reminds us of our micro moments and choices on how we spend our time, focus and energy. It reminds us to ask ourselves, “What can I do right now that will move me to a better place, towards my future self, my future state and my future identity?
We are continuing to think through the implications that this thinking has for our clients in terms of developing and maintaining thriving leaders, teams and organisations. Stay tuned for our insights on how Atomic Habits can be applied on these levels as well!
In the meantime, we encourage you to take 5 – 10 minutes in the next few days to identify the progress and change you wish to make in your life, work or wellbeing and identify 1 – 2 new habits you could build to support that change (or a habit you wish to break) and start to apply these concepts.
We are incredibly grateful to Karen Beattie and our Growth Faculty partners for this opportunity to hear from James Clear himself. His insights have reinforced our belief that sustainable performance and thriving organisations are the result of small, positive habits – committed to, reinforced and reset / recommitted to when needed, over time. We are excited to continue integrating these ideas into our daily practices and encourage you to seek to do the same. After all, you probably don’t need a complete overhaul to thrive; you just need to nurture the right habits.
Here’s to a thriving future, built one small habit at a time!
