Table of contents
🌈 3 Sentence Summary
- Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound and turn into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.
- Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become - Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits.
- You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
💡 Thoughts
I love this book. It's the best kind of book: Simple to read, simple to understand, but the payoff is huge.
I've always set lofty goals for myself, but my fatal flaw was that I did not to create the system/machine to get me there.
Too often we convince ourselves that massive results require massive action. Rather, it is the small accumulation of everyday decisions compounded over time that makes the real change.
To do exceptionally well you have to push your limits and that, if you push your limits, you will crash and it will hurt a lot. You will think you have failed—but that won’t be true unless you give up.
👤 Should You Read It?
Millions of people read the book, saying it changed their lives. You'll probably enjoy it more if:
- You're an idealist who dreams big.
- You want to build the system that can get you there.
- You want to break your bad habits and stick to good ones.
🚀 Actionable takeaways
- If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
- Focus on who you wish to become. The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
- The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.
✍️ Summary + Notes
🌈 4 Laws of Behaviour Change
"If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead."
A habit is simply a feedback loop consisting of a cue, craving, response, and reward. Which are formed by following the 4 laws of behaviour change:
- Make it obvious - We're more likely to form a habit if it should obviously be done. I put a bottle of water and my vitamin pills beside my desk, instead of hidden in a kitchen cabinet somewhere, making it fairly obvious that I should take it. Some days I'll throw a (clean) sock on my door handle before bed if I have something important the next day, the sock just screams "Check your to-do list!".
- Make it attractive - We won't do it if the habit is just plain unpleasant. I couple an unattractive habit with an attractive or already existing habit. I floss (ew) immediately after I brush my teeth. When I'm at the gym, I listen to funny podcasts where friends with great chemistry just shoot the shit.
- Make it easy - The habit should be as effortless as possible. I created a shortcut on my Iphone 13 that plays the latest Apple Podcast every time I get into my car and say "Hey Siri, Podcasts". It gets rid of so much of the friction and prevents me from listening to mindless pop songs.
- Make it immediately satisfying - Our brain loves instant gratification, so getting an immediate reward strengthens the habit. Whenever I tell my girlfriend that I'm heading to the gym, she'll get excited and encourage me a little, which is nice dopamine boost hehe. Plus, I absolutely love hot showers so I take one immediately after the gym.
♟️ The Best Way to Start a New Habit
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Habit stacking (Cue): Identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top (e.g. I floss and mouthrinse immediately after I brush my teeth). The existing habit is the cue, which then cascades onto new habits.
- Temptation bundling (Craving): Keep thinking about the reward at the end of the habit, whatever reward you choose for yourself. It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.
- 2-minute rule (Response): Make the habit stupidly easy to do. The Two-Minute Rule states, ‘When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.’ A habit must be established before it can be improved. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.
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Validation (Reward): Tell your friends and family about the new habit. Keep repeating it until your ego is involved. They will keep you accountable. We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).
One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group. The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual. Most days, we’d rather be wrong with the crowd than be right by ourselves.
🖥️ Make Habits a Part of Your Identity
There are three layers of behavior change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity.The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins. The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.
Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.
🗯️ Recognize that it Takes Time
Most people quit halfway because they want to master everything all at once, that's not how neuroplasticity works. We are limited by our biology, our brains need time to learn and adapt.
Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
If you're struggling, recognise that you haven't crossed the Plateau of Latent Potential, and that you're still in the Valley of Disappointment:
🪜 Stick With Good Habits Every Day
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress. Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress. Once you've got a streak, you won't want to break it, and that's when you see the real power of good habits compounding on each other.
The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities:
As habits become routine, they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored. Because of this, discipline gets us further than motivation. Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.
Conclusion
If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
It is only when looking back 2, 5, or 10 years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones become strikingly apparent.
Thank you for reading and I hope you found it useful. If you're interested, here's how I built my Productivity Machine.
If you'd like to check out more of my Book Summaries, you might find these interesting.
- Principles by Ray Dalio - My all time favourite book that I recommend to people the most.
- How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clay Christensen - Amazing book that taught me how to find happiness in our career, relationships, and life.
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