James Clear on Compounding Nature of Habits (Part 1)
The One You Feed
Eric Zimmer
4.6 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. His work has appeared in The New York Times, CBS This Morning, Time, Entrepreneur, and he has taught in colleges around the world. James is also the creator of the Habits Academy, the premier training platform for organizations and individuals that are interested in building better habits in life and work.
In Part 1 of the interview, Eric and James discuss habits and how to set yourself up for short and long-term success when it comes to behavior change.
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James Clear and I Discuss the Compounding Nature of Habits and…
- His book, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
- How habits are like the compound interest of self-improvement
- Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your efforts
- How bamboo growth is like habit growth
- The importance of building a foundation of habits to see results
- How work isn’t wasted, it’s stored
- Focusing on systems rather than goals
- How the outcome is a natural consequence of habits
- How goals can create an artificial finish line
- The role of identity in behavior change
- How you choose to act leads to the kind of person you want to be
- Learning to adopt a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset
- How humans are learning machines
- The 4 stages of habits: cue, craving, response, and reward
- The 4 laws of behavior change: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying
- To break a bad habit, invert the 4 laws of behavior change
James Clear Links:
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If you enjoyed this conversation with James Clear, you might also enjoy these other episodes:
Tiny Habits for Behavior Change with BJ Fogg
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As a new year approach, as many people start reflecting on the year that has passed and start |
| 0:04.8 | thinking about how they want the next year to be. Imagine if in 2022 you were able to have clarity |
| 0:10.9 | on what matters to you and then have the tools to live that out. Imagine if you were able to be |
| 0:16.5 | the person you really want to be. That's where I come in. I've helped hundreds of people from |
| 0:21.8 | around the world become who they deeply want to be. If you're feeling frustrated or disappointed |
| 0:27.2 | in your ability to make changes in your life, then having someone in your corner to support and |
| 0:32.0 | advise you is critical. Look, there's a lot of general advice out there. But figuring out which |
| 0:37.7 | of it applies to you is difficult. You are different than other people and your life looks different |
| 0:43.5 | than other people. So you need solutions that make sense for you. Knowing how to apply certain |
| 0:49.6 | tactics and tools to your specific life is my specialty. If you'd like to make 2022 a better year |
| 0:56.7 | for you, then book a 30-minute discovery call with me. It's a no-pressure, no-sales call, |
| 1:03.1 | where we determine if working together might make sense. And if it doesn't, I'll give you some |
| 1:08.1 | ideas to take with you so you win either way. Go to 1ufeet.net slash coaching to book your |
| 1:14.6 | free discovery session. That's 1ufeet.net slash coaching to book a free discovery session and I |
| 1:22.4 | look forward to meeting you. Happy holidays, everybody. In case you're just recently joining us or |
| 1:27.5 | how ever long you've been a listener of the show, you may not realize that we have over seven |
| 1:32.0 | years of incredible episodes in our archive. We've had so many wonderful guests that we've |
| 1:36.8 | decided to hand-pick a few of our favorites during this holiday season as we have some time off. |
| 1:42.0 | And these may be new to you, but if not, they are certainly worth another listen. So we hope you'll |
| 1:47.1 | enjoy part 1 of this two-part series with James Clear. The same way that money, compounds, |
| 1:53.7 | or multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them |
| 1:58.0 | over time. Welcome to the 1ufeet. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance |
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