Habits are pretty important and habit building has been an ongoing process for me. There is so much information on habits that I think we can sometimes drown in the information without actually getting to the implementation and action side.
There are two books that I usually recommend to people. I’ve found these the most helpful and practical.
Atomic Habits – James Clear
The most important idea I took away from Atomic Habits is the idea of identity shifting.
This book really speaks to the importance of this. For instance, when you shift your identity from I’m a chronic dieter to I’m somebody who eats healthy, then there’s less friction to eating healthy. In other words, when something becomes part of your identity you expend less effort to maintain the associated actions.
Atomic Habits has many helpful ideas and tricks but for me this idea of identity shifting was key. This idea is covered in depth in the book, but it is a reminder that what we believe to be true about ourselves has a powerful impact on our lives. Choose your beliefs carefully.
Tiny Habits – BJ Fogg
Tiny Habits really speaks to the importance of starting ridiculously small, hence the name. One of the key ideas here is that if our ability to do something is really low, then we need to adjust our initial action to something tiny and doable. For example, if we want to start running, but have never been a runner, then we need to start by walking five minutes every day for the first week.
Atomic Habits also touches on this idea of starting really small when you’re building habits, but Tiny Habits goes into more depth on this idea. These two books have some overlap but they complement each other nicely.