#470: A Proven System for Building and Breaking Habits

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2019

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s a new year and if you’re like millions of people around the world, you’re likely making goals to create some new habits or to break some bad ones. But if you’re also like millions of people around the world, your attempts at making and breaking habits will usually fail after just a few weeks of flailing effort, and you'll probably think your lack of willpower is to blame. My guest today argues that it isn’t truly a lack of willpower that’s holding you back from your habit goals, it’s the tactics you use for reaching them. His name is James Clear, he’s the author of the book Atomic Habits, and today on the show, he walks us through how to make habit formation and habit breaking much easier by crafting optimal systems for behavior change. We begin our show discussing the misconceptions people have about habits and the 4-step process of habit formation that tracks the 4 laws of behavior change. James then suggests specific ways to make good habits more attractive and easier to obtain while making bad habits less attractive and easier to shake. We end our conversation discussing why you should take into account your unique personality when you craft your habits. Get the show notes at aom.is/atomichabits.

Transcript

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0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:13.9	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Maillainous Podcast.
0:18.7	It's a new year and if you're like millions of people around the world, you're likely making
0:22.0	goals to create some new habits or break some bad ones.
0:24.5	But if you're also like millions of people around the world, your attempts at making and
0:27.4	breaking habits will usually fail after just a few weeks of flailing effort, you'll probably think your lack of willpower is to blame.
0:33.0	My guests say argues that it isn't truly a lack of willpower that's holding you back from your habit goals.
0:37.0	It's the tactics you use for reaching them.
0:39.4	His name is James Clear. He's the author of the book Atomic Habits.
0:41.9	And today on the show, he walks us through how to make habit formation and habit breaking much easier by crafting optimal systems for behavior change.
0:48.1	We begin our show discussing the misconceptions people have about habits and the four-step process of habit formation that tracks the four laws of behavior change.
0:54.6	James then suggests specific ways to make good habits more attractive and easier to obtain while making bad habits less attractive and easier to shake.
1:01.1	We enter conversation discussing why you should take an account your unique personality when you craft your habits.
1:05.7	Lots of useful, actual advice on the show, efforts over.
1:08.2	Check out the show notes at a.o.m. . is slash atomic habits.
1:20.3	All right, James Clear. Welcome to the show.
1:23.3	Hey, great to talk to you. Thanks for having me on.
1:25.4	So you've made a name for yourself as an expert on habit formation.
1:29.6	You've been writing some great stuff on your own website, JamesClear.com, medium. I've seen them there.
1:34.2	So let's start the backstory. How did you get started with researching and writing about habits?
1:38.4	Yeah, well, you know, we all build habits all the time, right?
1:41.7	Like we all have them whether we're thinking about them or not.
	...

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