How To Build Habits That Last - James Clear - #064

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Well, hello, friends. I hope you are sitting comfortably and fully strapped in for today, because it's a big one. James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits and has half a million people subscribed to his newsletter. You will have heard myself, Johnny and Youssef, mentioning Atomic Habits a lot so far this year. So if you don't trust our opinion, then the opinion of half a million other people, hopefully, will encourage you to believe that we know what we're talking about. James' episode with myself today is nothing short of one of the most actionable and most important episodes that I've done. I'm aware I keep on saying this, but it genuinely is. Our lives are shaped by the actions that we do every day. Anything that we accomplish from the small to the great is a lagging measure of the daily actions that we take. Today, James is going to take us through exactly how we build habits and how we break them. How you can use a proven methodology to make your habits stick and to get away from things that you wish you would stop doing. We're also going to talk a lot about finding purpose in life and how your genetics do not predetermine, but they do predispose where to look for your passion when it comes to work and also hobbies. It's fantastic. This blend of the conceptual and philosophical with the actionable is exactly why I started doing this podcast. If you only recommend one episode to a friend ever, I suggest that it's this one and I would really appreciate it if you do just that. There's three dots on the bottom right-hand corner or there'll be a little up arrow with a share button. Copy the link and send it to a friend who you want to help improve themselves. They'll benefit from it. And so will my play count, so please do it. I would really appreciate it. But for now, please welcome James Clear.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm joined by Mr. James Clear. How are you today? Hello.

**James Clear** (2:19)
Yeah, good to talk to you. I'm doing well.

**Chris Williamson** (2:21)
welcome to the show. A lot of the listeners will have heard us talk at length about how much we loved Atomic Habits. It's been an absolute game changer for us this year. Oh, thank you so much.

**James Clear** (2:33)
I'm glad you enjoyed it.

**Chris Williamson** (2:34)
Yeah.
It really is a big paradigm shift for a lot of the things that we've been reading recently. It wasn't, they say that the best books are ones that tell you things that you already know. And a lot of the things in Atomic Habits, it pieced together in a way that I hadn't ever seen before. A lot of the ancillary little bits and pieces and then compiled them into just stop being an idiot. This is what you need to do. So I'm super excited to go through it today.

**James Clear** (3:07)
Great. Yeah. I'm excited to talk about it too.

**Chris Williamson** (3:09)
Brilliant. So first and foremost, why do we need to be bothered about habits?

**James Clear** (3:15)
Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I mean, on one hand, like everybody has habits, right? We're all building them all the time, whether you're thinking about it or not. So that part, I think, is provides a little bit of a reason why. If you're building habits anyway, then it kind of makes sense to understand what they are and how they work so that you can maybe build them in a way that benefits you rather than in a way that hinders you. And I think that is a deeper truth about habits, that they're kind of like a double-edged sword. You know, like they can either build you up or tear you down. And you need to understand the kind of fundamental pieces of them and how to adjust them so that you can make sure they're working for you.
Which kind of naturally leads to a question of like, what is a habit and why do we bother forming it at all? And I think like a simple way to describe it is that habits allow you to solve the problems of life with less energy and effort than you would otherwise need. And all life requires energy to exist. If you don't have energy, then you don't survive. And so energy is very precious for that reason. And your brain is looking for ways to conserve it whenever possible. This makes just logical sense, right? Like if you imagine like our ancestors living on the savanna, if you could forage for berries in a patch that's 100 meters away, then why would you bother foraging for berries in a patch that's like 10,000 meters away or on the other side of the mountain or whatever, right? Like you're going to seek the path of least resistance to get the results that you want. And habits are sort of a shortcut, a mental shortcut, that your brain uses to do that kind of thing on a daily basis. So take, for example, the habit of tying your shoe. The first time you do it, you don't know how to tie your shoe and you have to think carefully about how to make the knots and someone has to teach you how to do it and so on. But after you do it 100 times or 1,000 times or 10,000 times, pretty soon you can tie your shoes while you're talking to somebody or thinking about your to-do list for the day. You just pretty much can do it on autopilot. And so in a small sense, tying a shoe is like a problem that you face on a daily basis and your brain has automated the solution. And habits allow you to do that in all different areas of life all the time. You automate the solutions to the recurring problems in life, which means you can focus on other things and direct your attention elsewhere. So for that reason, habits are like so central to our experience that we often overlook them. Like you don't even really think about brushing your teeth or tying your shoes or unplugging the toaster after each use or all these other things that you do each day, but your habits are the thing that help you function and operate in the world in a more efficient manner. Then there's also like the deeper or bigger impact that habits have, which if you think about like the results that you want in life, most of your results are like a lagging measure of the habits that precede them. So your bank account is a lagging measure of your financial habits or your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits or your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. And so by a lot of the time people think what they need is a different outcome. They think they need a bigger bank account or a lower number on the scale or more intelligence and wisdom, but actually what they need are the habits that precede those things. And so I think that's another reason why habits are really important and why to focus on them, which is that habits are the leading indicator of all the lagging results that we really want and aspire to achieve in life.