What I've Been Reading: Atomic Habits

The start of a new year tends to make us think about making personal changes in our lives, and in that vein I’ve found the book Atomic Habits by James Clear to be very helpful. Clear’s thesis is that rather than setting goals, the most effective way to bring change in our lives is to adjust our habits. The book is not written from a Christian worldview yet many of the principles reflected align with biblical teachings that one might find in Proverbs or other portions of the wisdom literature in Scripture. 

In the first section of the book, Clear explains and defends his thesis. He provides research from psychology and other disciplines to provide validity for his ideas. He outlines 4 steps that lead to change. The next four sections of the book expound on each of the four steps that lead to successful habits and ultimately to the changes we desire. First, we must make it obvious. Habits generally occur without conscious thought. By gaining awareness of this and making our behaviors obvious, we have a greater chance of adopting the new habit we wish to begin. Secondly, new habits must seem attractive or beneficial to us. Sometimes we can do this by adding a behavior we need to do with something we want to do. Third, it must be easy. He suggests that to create a habit that will stick we should think of it in an increment that will take less than two minutes to implement. Rather than developing the habit of reading 50 pages a day, a more effective habit to adopt might be to pull out the book and read a page. Finally, we must make these habits satisfying. Clear states that “to get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful-even if it’s in a small way” (193). In the final section of the book, the author gives more detailed advice about the practical application of these principles.  

Clear argues that small changes which seem insignificant will compound over time if we are willing to stick with them (7). Progress in any area of our lives generally is not linear. “It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action" (15). Rather than setting goals, Clear recommends that readers work on systems. He contends: “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems” (27).  

There are several very useful applications this book provides. Particularly helpful was the section on the practical steps to break a bad habit. By reversing the steps of forming desirable habits, the author shows how we can make it difficult on ourselves to do what we do not desire to do. Practically, we can make these bad habits, invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying. For Christians this framework can provide helpful practical steps.  While the power for personal change comes from the Holy Spirit who lives within us, we still must take action ourselves and keep in step with God’s Spirit. We need to pray and read Scripture above all, but repentance in our lives will also take practical actions. For instance, if we wish to waste less time on social media, we can take this step of making it invisible. We might remove the app from our phone or put our device somewhere we won’t access it mindlessly.  

As Christians, there ought to be something in all of us that seeks to improve our stewardship of the time God has given us. This book might be a great encouragement to you as you think through areas in which you’d like to grow.