Atomic Habits: The 1st Law

We convince ourselves that massive success requires massive changes but, the opposite is true. James Clear highlights in the third chapter of Atomic Habits that to build better habits, we can follow four simple steps. Habits are behaviours that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Any habit can be broken down, according to James Clear, into a feedback loop by following these 4 steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.

The four laws of behaviour change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. The 1st Law that Clear highlights in this chapter is: make it obvious.

The Cue

The four factors in the habit loop work together to build new habits. Each phase of the habit loop is important for building new habits and the first is the cue. With cues, the more we see it, the more aware of something when we see it. For example, our bodies have a variety of feedback loops that gradually alert us when it is around time to ear again, and that tracks what is going on around and within us. We do not need to see food in front of us to know that we are hungry. With enough practice, our brains pick up on cues that predict certain outcomes without consciously thinking about it.

You don’t need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin which is what makes them useful and dangerous, according to Clear. You can notice an opportunity and act without dedicating conscious attention to it; however, as habits form, your actions come under the direction of your automatic and nonconscious mind. You may fall into old patterns before you even realize what is happening because our habits become automatic.

The Best Way to Start a New Habit

When you decide that you want to start a new habit, before you can effectively build a new habit, you need to be aware get a handle on our current habits. This is because once a habit is firmly rooted in your life, it is mostly non-conscious and automatic. If a habit remains mindless, you cannot expect to improve it. As the psychologist Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

The 1st Law of Behaviour Change is making it obvious.

The cues that can trigger a habit come in a wide range of forms and how we intend to implement our intention can be followed by the implementation intention format:

“When situation X arises, I will perform response Y”

Many people think they lack motivation when they only lack clarity. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behaviour on top. Clear calls this method habit stacking. The Habit sticking formula that he suggests is:

After [Current Habit], I will [New Habit]

The key is to tie your desired habit into something you already do each day. Once this basic structure is mastered then you can begin creating larger stacks by chaining small habits together.

Motivation is Overrated: Environment Often Matters More

We as humans perceive the world through our sensory abilities and the most powerful of them is vision. The environment that we create around ourselves have an impact on our motivation to accomplish our goals. Since every habit is initiated by a cue, we are more likely to notice cues that stand out. For example, if we don’t see the vitamin behind the pantry, we are more likely to just ignore it. On the other hand, if we design our environment to motivate us to accomplish the things you want to, such as reading before bed, we can put the book we want to read beside our bed, so we see the book and are more likely to pick it up. Creating a new environment can help also to eliminate old bad habits and establish new ones.

Clear says that making cues of good habits obvious in our environment, we are more likely to notice the cues that stands out as habits become associated not with a single trigger, but with the entire context surrounding the behaviour. The context becomes the cue.

Secret to Self-Control

The secret to self-control, says Clear is, “make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.”

Clear states that once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten as the mental grooves have been carved into the brain— “you can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.”  People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It is easier to avoid temptation than resist it.

An approach we can take to cut off bad habits is avoided temptation that trigger the bad habits, is to remove exposure from it. As Clear says, “bad habits are autocatalytic: the process feeds itself.” They foster the feelings they try to numb such as feeling sluggish, so you watch television, watching television because you do not have the energy to do anything else. Researchers refer to this phenomenon as “cue-induced wanting” which is an external trigger that causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it. Therefore, in order to break the want, we can use more reliable cues and practice those cues to make good habits obvious and the cues of bad habits invisible.

By: Karen Shen