It’s hard to fathom that one small change in behavior can truly transform your entire life. But through the processes described in Atomic Habits, you’ve learned that small adjustments in the right behavior systems can lead to long-term success. Knowing this, is there any reason to think that one small change can’t snowball into a different mode of living?
If you’re still dubious, think about the example of a self-made millionaire. This person didn’t start out with a pile of money and simply add more to it. They started with nothing and made small gains financially. They built upon those gains one by one until they’d amassed a large sum of money, or their first million. The processes by which they did this varied.
They have all the money they could need now because of the success of these actions, but they had to start with that first dollar before any of it could have happened.
That first dollar is no different than your first 1% increase in behavior change. Your life cannot dramatically change without the first small effort toward doing so. If you maintain small changes and continue moving forward, eventually the scales of success will tip in your favor.
Habit formation is not a flash-in-the-pan process with a beginning and end. Habits require constant reflection and refinement so you can adjust behaviors to suit your systems and goals as you grow and transform.
The main ingredient to lasting success is persistence in looking for ways to keep adding small improvements to your behaviors. If you keep moving forward, you’ll eventually reach the life you want to live.
(Shortform note: The information that follows was provided as an appendix in the book. These ideas are meant to further breakdown some tips and insights about the 4 Laws of Habit Formation.)
1. Awareness must precede desire.
Your brain must first assign an emotion or feeling to a cue for a craving to kick in. Therefore, you can only crave an opportunity your brain has become aware of.
2. Happiness equals a state of contentment.
Contrary to popular belief, the state of being happy is not a product of experiencing pleasure. Happiness is what occurs in between the rewards phase and the craving phase, when you are content with your current state and have no immediate desires.
3. We are motivated by the idea of pleasure, rather than pleasure itself.
When you respond to fulfill a desire, you have an inkling of the reward you will receive, but you don’t know how much satisfaction you will feel. Therefore, the idea of the reward is what motivates you to act.
4. Observations are only problems if you make them such.
A craving is a desire to solve a problem. You will only be prompted to act if you observe that there is a problem to solve. If you do not assign a change in an emotional or physical state to a cue, you can simply observe it and be at peace.
5. You can form any behavior as long as you understand why it’s being formed.
If your desire is great enough, your motivation to act will be equally strong. Therefore, if you understand the depths of why you will act, you will feel prompted to act, even if the action is extreme or difficult.
6. Always seek more knowledge.
You may be the smartest person in the world, but your current intelligence alone is not a motivator for action. Only craving a state of change will drive your behavior. Therefore, if you remain curious and thirsty for more knowledge, you will be open to action.
7. Emotions influence action.
There may be a million intellectual reasons to do something, but you will only feel motivated to do it if there are emotions attached to the behavior. This is why the craving precedes the response and why two people can experience the same cue and react differently.
8. Emotions must proceed rationale and logic.
Your brain is structured to always consider the emotional aspects of something first and the logic second. Understanding this will help you learn how to approach and manage emotional responses to cues in your life.
9. Suffering leads to progress.
The root of all suffering is a yearning for change. Wanting something different or more in life is what causes you to respond with action. Therefore, suffering can be seen as the pathway for progress, rather than a static state of dissatisfaction.
10. Behaviors highlight your desire.
What you do relates to what you want. Because you will only act when a desire for change occurs, you can take an honest look at your current actions to see what your current desires are. If you say something is a priority but take no action, you likely don’t really believe that.
11. Sacrifice leads to rewards.
You must sacrifice energy to receive the subsequent reward. Doing nothing will provide nothing. You must be willing to sacrifice if you wish to see results.
12. Self-control is never satisfying.
A reward is only experienced when a desire is satisfied. Therefore, denying your cravings is not satisfying and will not lead to habit formation. To change a bad habit, a new response must be linked with your desire.
13. Keep your expectations at a satisfactory level.
A reward only links back to a cue if it is satisfying. Therefore, set realistic expectations for how satisfying the result of an action will be. If you have low expectations and receive more, you are delighted and satisfied. If you have high expectations and receive less, you feel dissatisfied. When your wants begin to outweigh your likes, you will be in a constant state of dissatisfaction.
14. The pain of failing corresponds to the degree of expectations.
The phrase, “Don’t get your hopes up,” is meant to warn of the dismal feelings that follow not receiving what you thought you would get. Failing to attain something small hurts less than failing to attain something massive. A failure in one part of the system doesn’t have to mean total failure if you manage your expectations for each action.
15. Wanting motivates, winning maintains.
Wanting inspires action. Liking solidifies behavior. This is why the rewards of your actions must be satisfying. You can feel motivated to act, but if you don’t like the result, you won’t feel the desire to act in the same way again.
16. Hope will eventually fade into acceptance with experience.
The first time you assign a desire to a cue, you develop hope for the promise encompassed in the corresponding action. After that first time, you understand what the reward is, so there’s no reason to hope. The need to experience hope can be powerful enough to pull you away from stable, predictable actions.