Atomic Habits

Lesson 1: Small changes have huge impact

Often, most people fail to realize how tiny mindful changes can affect the course of their results over a period of time. Improvement is not a onetime thing. It takes time and constant practice. Only then, would you be able to achieve remarkable results. To achieve powerful results, you don’t have to reinvent yourself or revolutionize your behavior. Rather, just make small changes and make a habit to try and repeat them daily. Slowly and steadily, those small changes are bound to leave you successful with great results.

Let’s say you hit the gym today. You exercise really hard and sweat it all out. Do you think there would be a change in your fitness levels or weight when you check again tomorrow? No. You have to make it a habit to go to the gym and work out every day. Only then, you will be able to see any tangible results. One-time activities aren’t bound to produce great results. If you feel like your habits are not paying off, rather than focusing on your current results, focus on your current trajectory. Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for a considerable amount of time.

Lesson 2: Habits are automated experiences

Habits are basically automated experiences. In simpler words, they are just activities that you have repeated so many times, that your brain has become automated to that process. For example: solving a Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper right after you wake up every day. If you begin solving a puzzle in the newspaper every morning, it becomes a habit for you to do so over a period of time. Following the constant routine repeatedly, you will become automated to the process of reaching out for the newspaper every morning. 

Scientist Edward Thorndike, in the nineteenth century, demonstrated some basic experiments on cats. He placed a few cats in a closed box. He observed that, as a basic instinct, all the cats attempted to escape out of the box. The cats clawed at the walls and searched for a way to get out desperately. Soon, they found a lever at one end of the box, opened it and escaped. Later, Thorndike repeated the same experiment on the cats that have managed to escape successfully. After a few times, the cats had learned the trick. When placed in the same closed box, instead of scrambling for a way to get out, the cats immediately went for the lever to open it and escape. These experiments showed that cats were automated to the