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For The Love With Jen Hatmaker Podcast

[ENCORE]Small Steps, Big Change: Waking Up To The Hidden Power of Our Habits with James Clear

For The Love With Jen Hatmaker Podcast

Jen Hatmaker

Relationships, Society & Culture

4.6 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Description:Sometimes a wake up call doesn’t arrive as a crisis. Sometimes it arrives as a quiet realization: the way I’m living isn’t actually working. In this encore episode, we revisit a powerful conversation with James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits, whose work has helped millions rethink how real, lasting change actually happens. Not through willpower, reinvention, or overnight transformation—but through the small, often invisible choices we make every day. This conversation is a wake up call to the myth of “someday”, a wake up call to waiting for motivation before we act, and a wake up call to the belief that big change requires big drama. James breaks down why habits are less about self-discipline and more about identity, environment, and systems—and how the patterns we repeat, often unconsciously, are shaping our lives for better or worse. Together, we explore how paying attention to what we practice daily can wake us up to the lives we’re actually building. If you’re standing at the edge of change—feeling stuck in patterns you can’t seem to break, exhausted by self-improvement cycles, or longing for a more sustainable way forward—this episode offers a grounded, hopeful reset. Let this be your wake up call to begin again, not perfectly, not dramatically, but honestly, intentionally, and one doable step at a time. Thought-provoking Quotes: “The most powerful change doesn’t happen when you decide to achieve a goal—it happens when you decide to become a different kind of person. Every small habit is a vote for the identity you’re building, and over time those votes add up to who you believe you are.” — James Clear “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear “If you can get 1% better every day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better.” — James Clear “Fix the inputs, and the outputs will fix themselves.” — James Clear “The goal isn’t to run a marathon. It’s to become a runner.” — James Clear “Lasting change isn’t about doing something perfectly or dramatically. It’s about showing up consistently in small ways, even when it feels insignificant, because that consistency is what makes transformation inevitable.”— James Clear Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear - https://amzn.to/4pQLrh6 James Clear’s 3-2-1 Newsletter - https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1 Guest’s Links: Website - https://jamesclear.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jamesclear/ Twitter - https://x.com/jamesclear Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jamesclear Connect with Jen!Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmakerJen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmakerJen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everybody, Jen Hatmaker here, your host of the For the Love podcast. Today, we're bringing

0:14.7

you a really powerful encore as part of our wake-up call series, which we're so excited about you guys.

0:23.2

So this series is really all about the moments that invite you and I to pay attention,

0:34.2

to pay attention to our lives, our own patterns, our bodies, our relationships,

0:44.1

our faith, and then to wake up to what is actually shaping us, to wake up to the life that we want and deserve and have agency over.

1:00.2

So today, we're revisiting my conversation with James Clear. All right?

1:11.8

If you don't know who that is,

1:14.9

James is the stratospheric author of Atomic Habits.

1:24.2

Atomic Habits has been at the very tip top of the bestseller list for so long, I can't even

1:34.4

see the bottom of the well. Because if you have ever felt stuck or overwhelmed or like you just keep starting over, this is your dude. James offers a wake-up call,

1:52.1

literally, that is both practical and it's hopeful. Because what he tells us is that meaningful

1:59.6

change rarely comes from big radical overhauls. It comes from

2:05.3

small choices that compound over time. This is just true. It bears out in every sense of data and

2:14.2

research and evidence. So James and I talk about the 1% idea. We talk about identity-based

2:22.1

habits, which you're going to love to hear about, and why systems matter more than goals.

2:28.5

Guys, I remember the first time I had this conversation with him. I walked away and my brain was buzzing for days.

2:37.6

And it was buzzing with hope. Because this is not just yet another conversation of how to do more, how to work harder, how to be better. It has different energy than that.

2:48.4

This is for anyone who wants a fresh start that's actually and genuinely sustainable.

2:55.0

You're going to love this conversation.

2:56.8

This book will not stop selling for a reason.

3:00.6

So let's jump in with the one and only James Clear.

3:11.6

Thank you. one and only, James Clear. Well, James, I guess we all know who you are.

...

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