In my newsletter this week, I talk a smidgeon about building good habits and breaking bad habits, but mostly I recommended the book that taught me how to do it. Let me say more about that here.

A few of the things that I absolutely loved about James Clear’s Atomic Habits, is that not only does he share his story about how good habits saved his life (of course there would be a story along those lines), but he also very clearly outlines:

• why habits matter
• why building tiny good habits works better than attempting sweeping changes
• how to actually build a new habit
• how to actually erase an old habit

As someone who generally had, in the past, decided on sweeping, massive, large-scale changes and then failed spectacularly within the week, I really needed to hear what Clear had to say. (I didn’t always fail spectacularly. Sometimes I failed only in part and actually succeeded in part, but it was never what you’d call a smooth and easy transition.)

And since I’ve started implementing Clear’s suggestions and guidelines for actually building new habits, it has been a smooth and easy transition. Has it always gone perfectly? No, absolutely not. Often, because halfway through building one habit I realize that my priorities were skewed when I decided what to do first, or I suddenly realize a few new things that have suddenly become first priority, and then I have to rearrange mid-stream. But honestly, I don’t count that as failure. I count that as being anti-fragile and adjusting midstream to the changes and chances of this life.

I previously blogged about Atomic Habits when I first got it and started reading, and you can find that blog post here.