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Atomic Habits Book Review on The Sales Podcast
Wes Schaeffer
April 21, 2022
An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Sales Tips you’ll learn today on The Sales Podcast…
In the same way we get a lot of power from splitting tiny atoms in the form of nuclear energy, you can unleash great power in your life with tiny changes
Your habits shape your identity
The four steps to building better habits
Make it obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it satisfying
…the aggregation of marginal gains.” ~Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of the British Cycling team
Massive success does not always require massive action
Over time, a tiny improvement can make a huge difference
Habit improvements compound like money compounds with interest
Be patient
Be disciplined
Don’t slide back into your old routines and habits
On a flight from L.A. to NYC, if the plane is 3.5 degrees off course, it will miss NYC by 225 miles and land in D.C.
Be more concerned with your trajectory than your results
Your outcomes are lagging indicators of your efforts, your habits
You get what you repeat
Positive and negative compounding habits
Productivity vs. stress
Knowledge vs. negative thinking
Relationships vs. rage
Breakthrough moments come after long, focused periods of invisible work
Bamboo
Cancer
Business wins
The Plateau of Latent Potential
Change can take years…before it happens all at once
Mastery requires patience
People call you an overnight success
The Valley of Disappointment
The results of our efforts are often delayed
All big things come from small beginnings
Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak tree
Building a good habit is like nurturing a delicate rose one day at a time
Forget about goals, focus on systems
Goals define the results you want, systems are the steps you take to get those results
The only way to win is to get better every day
Bill Walsh, Super Bowl-winning coach of the 49s said, “The score takes care of itself.”
Goals are good for setting direction, systems are best for making progress
Winners and losers have the same goals
Goal setting suffers from survivorship bias
Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
You must address the cause, not just the symptom
You need better systems
With the proper input, the output will take care of itself
Goals restrict your happiness
Goals create an “either-or” conflict
A systems-first mentality is the antidote
Goals are at odds with long-term progress
It’s a yo-yo effect
We want to do more than win the game. Systems help us to continue playing the game.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems
Make small, easy-to-implement changes
Why is it so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones?
We try to change the wrong thing
We try to change in the wrong way
Three layers of behavior change
Outcome (Get)
Processes (Do)
Identity (Believe)
Most of the time, we work from the outside in
We need to work from the inside out, i.e., from the identity to the process to the outcome
Shift the focus from what you want to achieve to who you want to become
“Want a cigarette?” “No, I’m trying to quit.”
“Want a cigarette?” “No, I’m not a smoker.”
Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last
The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity
Take pride in yourself, and you’ll be motivated to maintain the habits
True behavior change is identity change
Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are
Become a reader
Become a runner
Become a musician
Get out of your cognitive slumber
“I’m terrible with directions.”
“I’m not a morning person.”
“I’m horrible at remembering names.”
You create your own reality of negativity
Identity conflict is your main barrier to positive change
You are self-sabotaging because of your negative identity
Progress requires unlearning
So how do you form your identity?
Your beliefs are learned and then conditioned through experience
In other words, your habits embody your identity
The word identity is derived from the Latin words essential, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly
So your identity is literally your “repeated beingness.”
The more evidence you have for a belief, i.e., “I’m terrible with names,” the more strongly you will believe it.
The process of building habits is the process of becoming yourself
Fortunately, meaningful change does not require radical change
If a change is meaningful, it is big!
To change who you are, change what you do.
Trust yourself. Learn to trust yourself by doing small habits repeatedly that bring about the small results you’re seeking
You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t need a unanimous vote to become a new you.
Just give yourself new evidence of your new self to create your new identity
Who do you want to be?
What do you want to stand for?
What are your principles and values?
Who do you wish to become?
Maybe you have some big goals. Write those down, then work backward to figure out what you need to do to get there.
“I want to write a book (outcome-based). Who is the type of person who writes books? Someone who is consistent, disciplined, and reliable. Okay. I am a consistent, reliable, disciplined person (identity-based).”
This is a feedback loop. It’s a two-way street
Focus on becoming the right type of person you need to be, and the outcome will take care of itself
Know who you want to be. Habits help you become that someone.
Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast
Order the book by James Clear, “Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones’ by James Clea