Discipline Expert: The Habit That Will Make Or Break Your Entire 2026! James Clear

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 132 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ready to make habits that stick in 2026? Atomic Habits author JAMES CLEAR reveals the science behind building lasting habits, breaking bad ones, and how 1% improvements transform your entire life! James Clear is a #1 international bestselling author and habit formation expert, best known for his book "Atomic Habits", which sold over 25 million copies worldwide. He writes the '3-2-1 Newsletter' (read by millions weekly) and recently published 'The Atomic Habits Workbook'. He explains: ◼️The 2-minute trick that makes "impossible" habits feel effortless ◼️The ONE habit that controls the next 10 years of your life ◼️The 1% curve that explains why you quit right before the breakthrough ◼️How every action is a "vote" for your identity, not just progress toward a goal ◼️Why winners and losers share the same goals (and the ONE thing that separates them) 00:00 Intro 03:00 What Atomic Habits Taught Us About Human Behavior 05:14 A Great Way to Stick to Your Habits 07:50 Create the Conditions to Succeed 11:44 The 2-Minute Rule: The Most Important Habit-Building Tip 16:01 Small Steps That Lead to Big Progress 18:18 Don't Waste Time: Hats, Haircuts, and Tattoos Framework 20:59 The Most Impactful Story from the Atomic Habits Community 22:29 The Difference Between a System and a Goal 24:49 How to Create Systems to Achieve What You Want 27:17 Winners and Losers Have the Same Goals 28:13 Can Goals Make You Unhappy? 28:54 Do You Need Dissatisfaction to Stay Driven? 31:26 How Detrimental Is Comparison to Others? 32:23 Which Habit Should You Start With? 35:39 The Most Overlooked Things About Habits 37:44 Big Life Changes 38:28 The 4 Burners Theory: You Can't Do Everything 41:13 Sequencing Your Life: When to Do What 42:00 Does It Really Take 66 Days to Form a Habit? 43:58 Why Habits Get Easier Over Time 46:58 How Habits Reinforce Your Desired Identity 49:04 The Importance of Identity in Habit Formation 50:26 What Is Cognitive Dissonance? 51:15 How Social Bonds Shape Our Self-Perception 53:12 Why Your Environment Matters 56:07 Cutting People Off from Your Life 56:48 Creating a New Context for New Behaviors 1:01:33 Advice for People Who Feel Stuck in Life 1:03:31 Why Getting 1% Better Every Day Works 1:08:53 The #1 Factor for Opportunities in Business and Life 1:11:36 How to Be Confident 1:13:23 What to Do If You Think the World Is Against You 1:16:13 Scale Down Habits for Psychological Momentum 1:20:58 Why Habit Trackers and Streaks Matter 1:23:48 The Habit Formation Cycle 1:25:47 The 4 Laws of Behavior Change 1:33:23 How to Break a Habit 1:36:25 What If a Bad Habit Feels Good in the Moment? 1:37:52 Use the Habit Scorecard to Shape Your Habits 1:40:36 What Is Habit Stacking? 1:45:02 How to Manage Your Energy Levels 1:47:37 Ads 1:49:15 How To Be Consistent At Anything 1:56:10 You Need This Mentality Shift Follow James: Instagram - https://bit.ly/4oH1flW X - https://bit.ly/3MNmFR3 Atomic Habits - https://bit.ly/4j4NpJf The Atomic Habits Workbook - https://bit.ly/4iU1Y28 The Atomic Habits Daily Calendar - https://amzn.to/48Ml9WR 3-2-1 Newsletter - https://bit.ly/4iIJMrX You can purchase James’ book, ‘Atomic Habits’, here: https://amzn.to/4iHzng6 The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/ ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsors: Wispr - https://wisprflow.ai/DOAC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/DIARY Stan: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. For Official Rules, visit https://DaretoDream.stan.store 1Password - Find out more at https://1password.com/doac

Transcript

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0:00.0	You've written one of the best-selling books in history about habits.
0:04.2	Because people always need more practical help with implementing their habits.
0:09.2	And I have different strategies and different tools to have us to stick,
0:12.9	including one principle that is probably the single most important for building habits.
0:17.0	But so much of it is about mastering the art of getting started.
0:20.4	Let's get started then.
0:21.9	James Clear is one of the world's leading habit experts. Is educating millions to build lasting habits,
0:27.6	master goal setting, and ultimately redesign their lives. There are four different stages that
0:32.5	every habit goes through. Q, craving, response, and reward. So first, I want to make it obvious.
0:36.9	Easier it is to see
0:37.8	or get your attention, the more likely that you are to act on it. The second is about the craving. It's all about making it attractive. And the more engaging or exciting it is, the more likely to stick with it. The third is to make it easy. The easier a habit is to perform, the more likely it is to happen. And then the fourth and final one is to make it satisfying. And that's about increasing the odds that you do it next time.
0:55.7	And there's some tools that we can go through.
0:57.3	But one of the big takeaways from atomic habits is it's easier to build a new habit if you stack it on top of the habit you're already doing. So let's say that your current habit is you make a cup of coffee. And the new habit that you want to build is you want to start meditating. So then you
1:11.0	could say, all right, after I make my morning cup of coffee, I will meditate for 60 seconds. And you can do it for anything. There's also a framework that I call hats, haircuts, and tattoos, the secret to winning, habit shaping, and a real lesson of getting 1% better every day. And we can talk about all of them. But is there any frameworks, any tactics if you're trying to break a habit?
1:28.5	If you want to break a bad habit, there's some things that you can do. James, the book is shaped tens and tens and tens of millions of lives. Is there anything you look back on that you regret? If I could add something, I would add this because you really want to make progress again and again. If you want to get to the top and stay at the top, and you need to be able to... Just give me 30 seconds of your time. Two things I wanted to say.
1:51.0	The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week.
1:55.6	It means the world to all of us and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't
1:59.6	have imagined getting to this place. But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started. And if you
2:05.9	enjoy what we do here, please join the 24% of people that listen to this podcast regularly and follow us
2:12.0	on this app. Here's a promise I'm going to make to you. I'm going to do everything in my power
2:16.9	to make this show as good as I can now and into the future.
2:20.6	We're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to,
	...

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