Atomic Habits Chapter 1 summary

Name: Sarker Saady Ahmed

Task: Summary of Atomic Habits chapter 1

 Atomic Habits by James Clear: Chapter 1 "The Surprising Power Of Atomic habits"

 SUMMARY

> Small, good habits will always create a difference. These little differences might not be visible in short period of time but does benefit the person in the long run.

> British Cycling for example has never won a single gold medal for about 10 decades. All changed during 2003 when Dave Brailsford took charge

>Brailsford immediately observed not the teams' performance but the overall environment of the individual athlete, knowing that every point matters.

>Brailsford major philosophy that he always followed was "The whole principle of winning solely comes down to the element required for biking and improve those elements everyday by 1%"

>Brailsford redesigned the bike seats, rubbed bike tires with alcohol for better grip, provided bikers with lighters clothes and more aerodynamic to decrease air resistance.

>Brailsford also focused on the minor details like what type of massage gels are used. what type of pillow and mattress to use so that every biker can have best night sleep.

>Within all these minor changes, British Biking team made history and the results came quickly. Within five years in the Olympic and other sports events, British Bike Team has taken 60% of its gold medal and during the London 2012, they have set nine Olympic record and seven World Record.

>Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome has won Tour De France victories five times in six years.

>We grew up with the phrase "MASSIVE SUCCESS = MASSIVE ACTION" which can be anywhere, whether on losing weight, building business, getting top grades etc. however, we can get massive results just by improving 1% everyday, something which goes out quite unnoticable.

> 0.99^365 = 00.03  1.10^365 = 37.78. We can see that everyday 1% improvement will mean that you are 37X better than last time.

> The results do not come within a week. try saving money for a week, you will be rich in long term, third gym day, still no change but will come in long run

>Obviously, building these habits needs mindset and discipline. If for example, you have slacked off the day, hoping you will complete the work tomorrow or slack off having cheat meal. One day seems bearable however, if this keeps on going, it will be drastic and you are basically building your bad habits.

WHAT PROGRESS IS REALLY LIKE

>If for example, we were given an ice cube and are expected to calculate its temperature on when does it state change.

>26C, 27C, 28C we still wont see change (more realistically, we would see very tiny changes) but as we keep increasing temperature, we would see that state is changing and therefore there is change. 

>We will never be able to realize our break point from the beginning since it takes time and gradually it starts to ascend. 

>Observing carefully, the temperature that we keep increasing but still no change does not mean that the temperature we put is waste. Similarly, the work that we put in but see no results or output does not necessarily mean that the work is useless.

FORGET ABOUT GOALS, FOCUS ON SYSTEM

INSTEAD

> When we work hard to reach our goal, the main point is not what goals you set but rather what effort or how your system will work to reach the goal.

> If our goal were to lose weight, We should not be focused on "I need to lose weight", focus should be on "how to lose weight". This can be done through healthy eating, gym sesh 3X per week etc.

> By setting goals, we must make sure we do not turn back to our old bad habits. Bringing in bad habits back would mean "Temporary Goal Setting".

>For example, your goal was to lose weight. You have performed gym, taken care of your diet and eating habits etc. In this scenario, reaching the goal would fall down to consistent. Not being consistent would naturally mean that you have slacked off and gradually, good habits rate decrease