0:00

right, welcome to your Atomic Habits

0:02

cheat sheet. Yeah. Basically, you're like

0:04

shortcut to understanding and applying the

0:06

powerful ideas from James Clear's book.

0:08

Oh, yeah. You're joining us for

0:11

season one of Atomic Habits for

0:13

Beginners. Okay. And this is episode

0:15

10. Cool. We're diving deep into

0:17

how to get rid of bad

0:19

habits by understanding their causes. Right.

0:21

And you know, we all want

0:24

to gain knowledge quickly and effectively,

0:26

right? Absolutely. So today, let's unpack

0:28

why bad habits stick and how

0:30

to like dismantle them. Okay.

0:32

So for this episode, we

0:34

have an excerpt focusing on

0:36

this. It's from s1e10 .pdf.

0:39

Basically our mission today is to extract

0:41

the most important insights to help you

0:43

understand how bad habits form and then how

0:45

to shake them. So to

0:47

kick things off, this excerpt dies

0:50

right into a story about a

0:52

guy named Mike in Istanbul back

0:54

in 2012. Right. And it's really

0:56

interesting because it highlights how a

0:58

significant change can happen unexpectedly. Right,

1:00

like you don't expect it and then boom it hits

1:02

you. Exactly, and in this case it was

1:04

through a book. Through a book. Yeah, Alan

1:07

Carr's easy way to stop

1:09

smoking. Okay, I've heard of that one.

1:11

Yeah, so Mike, this

1:13

tour guide who was a smoker,

1:15

read this book and it completely changed

1:17

his perspective on smoking. And like,

1:19

what was it about the book that did that? Well,

1:21

Mike said it was like the book

1:23

took away the mental burden of smoking.

1:26

Oh, interesting. It wasn't about like white

1:28

knuckling it or anything. It was about

1:30

like fundamentally shifting how he thought about

1:32

the habit. So it wasn't willpower. It was

1:34

more like a change of mindset. Exactly. Yeah.

1:36

Yeah. So the book kind of

1:38

challenged those deep -seated beliefs that smokers

1:40

have. Right. That sense of I

1:43

need this, or I enjoy this, or, you

1:45

know. It was a part of me. Yeah, and

1:47

it basically asks smokers to

1:49

reconsider their entire relationship with

1:51

cigarettes. Huh. So how'd the book do

1:53

that? Oh, it had some pretty direct reframing

1:55

techniques. Like, for example, it just says

1:57

straight up like, you think you're quitting something,

2:00

but you're not quitting anything because cigarettes

2:02

do nothing for you. Wow, that's bold.

2:04

Right. So it's just like

2:06

calling out those justifications that smokers

2:08

use, right? Yeah, and it tackles them

2:10

head on. Makes you face the truth. Yeah,

2:12

like it says smoking isn't actually social. Oh,

2:15

interesting. You know, you can be social

2:17

without it. And that smoking doesn't relieve stress.

2:19

In fact, it actually makes it worse in

2:21

the long run. So it debunks

2:24

those myths. Yeah. And the

2:26

whole message of the book is so powerful. It's

2:28

like, you're not losing anything

2:30

by not smoking. And you're

2:32

actually gaining so much. what

2:34

kind of things like your health energy

2:36

levels finances you know yeah confidence

2:39

freedom and even like how

2:41

long and how well you live

2:43

wow when you put it like Smoking

2:45

doesn't sound very appealing at all. Yeah, it

2:47

starts to seem pretty illogical. It does. So

2:50

basically the book's strategy is to make

2:52

smoking unattractive in the smoker's mind. Okay.

2:54

And that's actually what James Clear calls

2:56

the inversion of the second law of

2:58

behavior change. Right, you gotta make it

3:00

unattractive. Yeah, so if you really

3:02

believe that you're gaining everything

3:04

and losing nothing by not smoking,

3:07

then that urge to light up

3:09

just loses its power. makes

3:11

sense. So we've seen how making

3:13

a bad habit unattractive can work,

3:15

but... Let's get into like why

3:17

those habits become attractive to us

3:19

in the first place. Okay. Yeah.

3:22

And the excerpt talks about this

3:24

idea of surface level cravings versus

3:26

deeper underlying motives. So like

3:28

what we think we want

3:30

versus what's really driving us. Exactly.

3:32

So even simple cravings like wanting

3:34

a taco. Okay. You know, they're actually

3:36

rooted in like our basic human

3:38

needs. Right. Like needing food to survive. Yeah.

3:40

You might be craving the taste of

3:42

that taco, but ultimately it's connected to

3:44

that bite. biological need to eat. So

3:46

it's kind of like the taco creating is just

3:48

the surface. And underneath there's

3:50

all these deeper primal drives. Yeah, like

3:53

hidden forces. Right. And the excerpt

3:55

lists a bunch of these underlying motives

3:57

that shape our behavior. Like what kind

3:59

of things? Well, there's the need to conserve

4:01

energy. Yes, of course. The drive

4:03

to find love and reproduce

4:05

the desire to connect

4:07

with others, to win social

4:10

approval, to reduce uncertainty.

4:12

Makes sense. And to achieve

4:14

static. and prestige yeah like

4:16

those core human desires yeah and

4:18

these have been driving our actions for

4:20

ages since like the dawn of time right

4:22

and this is where like habit

4:24

-forming products and behaviors come in

4:26

they're not like inventing new

4:28

desires right they're just tapping into

4:30

these existing powerful motives like they're

4:32

hijacking our brains yeah in a

4:34

way so for example like the

4:37

desire to find love

4:39

and reproduce. Okay. Leads people

4:41

to use apps like Tinder. Yeah.

4:43

And the need to connect with

4:45

others makes us browse Facebook for

4:47

hours. Makes sense. And then the

4:49

desire for social approval. Yeah. Influences

4:51

what we post on Instagram. Totally.

4:53

And then needing to reduce uncertainty

4:56

makes us search Google constantly. I

4:58

do that all the time. And wanting status and

5:00

prestige might even drive people to play video

5:02

games. Wow. So like our modern habits

5:04

are just new ways of satisfying those same

5:06

old desires. Exactly. specific technologies

5:08

or behaviors might change. But

5:10

those core human motivations, they

5:13

stay pretty constant. They're timeless.

5:15

Yeah. And here's an important

5:17

point. Okay. For any given

5:19

underlying motive, there are

5:22

many ways to address it. Why? So

5:24

for example, if someone copes with

5:26

stress by smoking, someone else

5:28

might find relief by running

5:30

or meditating. Right. So

5:32

smoking isn't the only solution to

5:34

stress. It's just one way to deal

5:36

with it. Exactly. Yeah. It's just the

5:38

method that person has learned

5:41

and associated with relief. So it's

5:43

about the associations we make. Yeah.

5:45

And that brings us to the role.

5:47

of associations and predictions in our

5:49

habits. Our brains are constantly

5:51

taking in cues from our environment

5:53

and making predictions about what will

5:55

happen next based on our past

5:57

experiences. It's like our brain is always trying to

5:59

guess what's coming. Yeah, it's super efficient. guess

6:01

that makes sense for survival. Yeah, like imagine

6:03

touching a hot stove. Right?

6:06

You see the hot stove, you predict pain

6:08

and you avoid touching it. And it's

6:10

not just about the facts. You know, it's

6:12

about how we interpret them. So our

6:15

perception matters. Yeah, like the

6:17

same cue can trigger different behaviors and

6:19

different people. That's interesting. Based on

6:21

their own predictions. So for example, if someone sees

6:23

a cigarette, a smoker

6:25

might crave it. Yeah. But someone

6:27

who's never smoked might feel. Disgusted

6:30

makes sense different associations. Yeah,

6:32

so the real cause of our habits

6:34

Yeah is not the cue itself, but

6:36

the prediction we make about it So

6:38

is what we think will happen, right? And

6:41

these predictions lead to

6:43

feelings, okay, which we experience

6:45

as like that feeling of

6:47

wanting something Yeah, it's that sense that

6:49

something's missing a desire to

6:51

change how we feel interesting so

6:54

a craving isn't about the thing

6:56

itself, you know, whether it's a

6:58

chip, a cigarette, like on social

7:00

media. It's about the feeling. Yeah,

7:02

it's the desire to feel differently. That

7:04

makes a lot of sense. And there's this

7:06

neuroscientist Antonio DeMasio. Oh yeah, I've

7:09

heard of him. He says emotions are crucial

7:11

to how we make decisions. Like our

7:13

feelings guide our choices. Exactly. They're

7:15

like an internal compass telling us what's

7:17

good, bad or neutral. Wow.

7:19

So powerful. So our

7:21

feelings really drive our behavior,

7:24

especially our habits. Yeah, that

7:26

makes sense. So to sum it

7:28

up, cravings and bad habits are often

7:30

just us trying to address these. basic

7:33

human motives. Those deep desires.

7:35

Yeah, and when a habit works for

7:38

us, we learn to predict that

7:40

it will give us that good feeling.

7:42

Okay, so we crave it more. Right, but

7:45

here's the cool part. What's that?

7:47

We can actually rewire our brains

7:49

to enjoy good habits. Even if they

7:51

seem hard. Yeah, and it starts with a

7:53

shift in mindset. Interesting. So instead of saying,

7:55

I have to wake up early, you

7:57

can say, I get to wake up early. I like that.

7:59

And then list the benefits you know

8:01

like I get to have extra time

8:03

for myself or I get to go

8:05

for a run or whatever. It's like

8:07

changing your perspective. Yeah and the excerpt

8:09

makes a good point both perspectives are

8:12

true. Right you might have to but

8:14

you also get to. Exactly it's about

8:16

choosing how you want to see it.

8:18

like focusing on the positive. Yeah, and

8:20

there's this great anecdote about a person

8:22

in a wheelchair who reframed their confinement

8:24

as liberation. Wow, that's powerful. Right, it

8:26

really shows how much our perspective matters.

8:28

It does. And the excerpt gives us

8:30

some practical ways to reframe habits. Okay,

8:33

like what? Well, instead of I

8:35

need to run, you can say, this

8:37

is my time to build endurance

8:39

and get faster. I like that. And

8:41

saving money can go from feeling

8:43

like a sacrifice to being about future

8:45

freedom. Great things. And even meditation

8:47

can be reframed. Okay, how about that?

8:49

Instead of getting frustrated by distractions.

8:51

Yeah, those are the worst. You can

8:53

see them as opportunities to practice

8:55

returning to your breath. Oh, interesting. And

8:57

those pre -game jitters? Gary Ack, I

8:59

get those. You can reframe them

9:01

as excitement and adrenaline to help you

9:03

perform. So you're using those nerves

9:05

to your advantage? Exactly. And all these

9:07

shifts in mindset change the feelings

9:10

we associate with our habits. It's like

9:12

changing the emotional channel. Yeah. And

9:14

the excerpt also talks about creating

9:16

a motivation ritual. What's that? It's basically

9:18

linking a habit you want to

9:20

build with something you already enjoy. Oh,

9:22

so like pairing them together. Exactly.

9:24

So for example, if you have a

9:26

song that puts you in a

9:28

good mood, you can play it before

9:30

doing a new habit you want

9:32

to build. So your brain links the

9:34

song with a good feeling. Right.

9:36

And eventually the song becomes a cue

9:38

to get you started. Cool. There's

9:40

also this guy, Ed Latimore, who used

9:42

to put on headphones to focus

9:44

even without music. Really? Yeah, he had

9:46

associated the headphones with focused work

9:48

he enjoyed and eventually just putting them

9:50

on became a trigger to get

9:52

into that focused state. That's fascinating. And

9:54

it's similar to pregame rituals in

9:56

sports. Oh yeah, like athletes do those

9:58

all the time. it's not

10:01

just about the physical warm -up. It's mental

10:03

too. Yeah, it's about getting in the

10:05

right headspace. So we can use those

10:07

same principles. to like

10:09

improve our happiness. Absolutely. You can

10:11

create a short routine before

10:13

something you enjoy. Okay. Like taking

10:15

deep breaths and smiling before

10:17

petting your dog. And that routine

10:19

can become a cue for

10:21

feeling happy. I like that. So

10:23

the big takeaway here is

10:25

that reframing our associations with bad

10:27

habits is key to breaking

10:29

them. By changing how our brain

10:31

predicts and feels about those habits, we

10:33

can make them less attractive. And make

10:35

good habits more appealing. Yeah, and it

10:38

all comes back to that second law

10:40

of behavior change, make it unattractive. So

10:42

we need to understand those underlying

10:44

motives, recognize that our habits are

10:46

just one way to satisfy those

10:48

desires, and then acknowledge that our

10:50

brains are predicting and associating things

10:52

all the time. And then work

10:54

to associate bad habits with bad

10:56

feelings. Exactly. And the

10:58

excerpt briefly mentions the first strategy

11:01

for breaking bad habits, which is

11:03

the inversion of the first law,

11:05

make it invisible. We'll dive deeper

11:07

into that in a future episode,

11:09

but basically it's about reducing exposure

11:11

to those cues that trigger our

11:13

bad habits. Makes sense out of

11:15

sight, out of mind. Right. So

11:17

by understanding these underlying causes and

11:19

making bad habits unattractive, we can

11:21

set ourselves up for success. It's

11:23

like laying the foundation. Yeah, so

11:25

hopefully this deep dive has given

11:27

you some valuable insights. I

11:29

think so. Remember, understanding those underlying

11:32

desires and reframing your perspective are

11:34

key. And agree more. and for

11:36

a printable version of this Atomic

11:38

Habits cheat sheet. And to support

11:40

our work, visit themessypodcast.com. Cool. You

11:42

can also find all the books

11:44

we've covered in season one of

11:47

Atomic Habits for Beginners. Awesome. So

11:49

here's a final thought for you.

11:51

Okay. What's one bad habit you

11:53

want to break? And what deeper

11:55

desire might it be fulfilling? And

11:58

how could you reframe that habit to

12:00

make it less attractive. Good question. This

12:02

is just the beginning of your journey to

12:04

building better habits. To better habits.