It feels like during the first few weeks of January that recommendations for James Clear’s Atomic Habits starts making the rounds on social media. In fact, I tried to read this book back in 2020 but only read about twenty pages in. This year, I decided to give it another try. After hearing so many rave reviews about this book for years since its publication in 2018, I can assure you that the hype is worth it.
During high school, I fell into a cycle of reading self-help books to improve some aspect of my life, becoming invested for two weeks, then quickly losing steam. What sets Atomic Habits apart from the piles of other self-help books is that this book is all about change from the inside out. We are meant to spend much of our time imagining the person we want to become and crafting small incremental changes, rather than throwing ourselves into intense goals that tire us out. Clear defines the four laws of behavior change to crafting the perfect habit as:
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How can I make it obvious?
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How can I make it attractive?
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How can I make it easy?
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How can I make it satisfying?
When we think of New Year’s resolutions, we think of going to the gym every day for hours, completely cutting out sugar, or any other austere practices that never stick past Valentine’s Day. Instead, Clear highlights how we are meant to make habits that are simple, easy, and fun. What I loved about this book was the emphasis on consistency over effort: just doing an action for five minutes a day every day for months is much better than cycles of maximum effort until complete burnout. My only critique was that I often found myself skipping over the evidential anecdotes at the start of each chapter, but that might have been more because I was so impatient to read the next step in the process.
This is the first book that made me excited to change my life and my habits in a more consistent way. This was one of those rare books where once I finished the last page, I kept thinking of when I could reread it again. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a self-help book they can use in all areas of their life and for every stage of their life.
The Library Mouse's Book Nook 