#145 How to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones with James Clear

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Alternative Health, Mental Health

4.8 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2021

⏱️ 99 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you believe habits are ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Are you constantly trying to create better habits and quit those that don’t serve you? Today’s guest has insights that will help get your 2021 off to a great start by truly understanding what habits are – and how to optimise them.

James Clear is an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author of Atomic Habits a handbook for anyone who wants to finally get to grips with successful behaviour change. He shares his learnings via his hugely popular newsletters, to help people use the psychology of habit formation to live healthier, fuller lives.

We talk about ‘designing your environment’, building a tribe around you who support what you want to achieve and finding the path of least resistance to what you want to do. When it comes to good versus bad habits, James says it’s more about which are effective – are they serving you?

We also discuss how true behaviour change is really identity change. Every action you take towards your goal is a vote for the person you wish to become. You’re no longer that someone who tries to go for a run three times a week, you’re a runner. James says we can all begin by asking ourselves ‘Who do I want to become?’ then looking at what habits we might need to build that identity.

This is such a useful conversation, packed with practical tips, and I think it’s a great way to kick off the year. I know you’re going to feel fired up to seek out your new identity once you listen.

Show notes available at https://drchatterjee.com/145

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Your current life today is largely the sum of your habits.
0:03.7	In many ways, it's the habits that you've been following for say the last six months or the last year that have carried you to whatever results you have right now.
0:12.8	But I think the real reason that habits matter is they reinforce a new identity. They reshape the way you think about yourself.
0:21.4	Every action you take is like a vote for the type of person that you wish to become.
0:26.8	Habits are a lifestyle to live, not a finish line to cross.
0:30.8	Hi, my name is Ron Goodchastee. Welcome to Feel Better Live More.
0:41.8	Hello and welcome. I hope that you are all having a relaxing and peaceful start of 2021.
0:49.8	Of course, this is the time of year where habits are often top of mind and that's what today's conversation is all about.
0:59.8	But what does so many habits fail? What is so many of them fizzle out after a few good weeks?
1:06.8	In fact, do you label your habits as being good or being bad?
1:10.8	Well, today's guest has insights that will help get your 2021 off to a great start by truly understanding what habits are and how to optimize them.
1:22.8	My guest today is James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, a handbook for anyone who wants to finally get to grips with successful behavior change.
1:33.8	He shares his learnings via his hugely popular newsletters and helps people use a psychology of habit formation to live healthier, fuller lives.
1:43.8	And when our conversation today, we talk about designing your environment and while building a tribe around you who support what you want to achieve is so, so important,
1:53.8	we also talk about finding the path of least resistance to what you want to do.
1:59.8	And when it comes to good versus bad habits, James says that the more important question is whether your habits is truly effective or not.
2:09.8	This is a great idea to think about and I think you're going to enjoy learning about it during the conversation today.
2:16.8	We also discuss how true behavior change is a really identity change.
2:21.8	Every action you take towards your goal is a vote for the person you wish to become. You're no longer that someone who tries to go for a run three times a week.
2:30.8	You're a runner.
2:32.8	James says we can all begin by asking ourselves, who do I want to become?
2:38.8	Then looking at what habits we might need to build that identity.
	...

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