James Clear

Author, weightlifter, and travel photographer in 25+ countries.

James Clear’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, and Entrepreneur, and on CBS This Morning, and is taught in colleges around the world. His website, jamesclear.com, receives millions of visitors each month, and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his email newsletter. He is the creator of The Habits Academy, the premier training platform for organizations and individuals that are interested in building better habits in life and work.

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Atomic Habits

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by James Clear

James Clear has a super-popular website (jamesclear.com). Millions of people visit it every month and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his email newsletter. After reading this book, I can see why. He’s a great writer and distills the essence of habit formation into, well, its fundamental components—the “atomic” structure if you will—while showing us how those TINY little incremental improvements add up to MIGHTY results. I rarely say a book is a must-read but this one’s as close as it gets. Big Ideas we explore include: The math behind 1% gains compounding over a year (and a decade!), navigating the Plateau of Latent Potential (ever given up on a habit? Take note!), the importance (and etymology) of our Identity (get this: it *literally* means 'repeated being ness'), The 4 Laws of Behavior Change (remember: cue + craving + response + reward and... make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying), and the Sorites Paradox (can a single habit change your life?).

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Algorithms & Habits

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Hint: Observe Trajectory of Daily Choices Compounded for 20 Years

In our last couple +1s, we talked about the power of tiny little daily 1% Optimizations compounded over an extended period of time. (Let’s all take a moment and wave to our quadrillion angels. 😇) Today I want to go back to James Clear’s Atomic Habits for some more wisdom. In fact, we’re going to...

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Habits & Self-Image

Actualization baby steps compound Habits productivity self-image Work

Want Better Habits? Start With Who
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Identity = “Repeated Beingness”

Continuing our quick tour through James Clear’s Atomic Habits, let’s talk about the importance of your Identity in forming better habits (and breaking the bad ones). (Soon we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of his 4 Laws of Behavior Change.) James presents a couple different ways to approach habits....

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Habits & Self-Image

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Your Identity = ?
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Whether You Think You Can or Think You Can’t…

In our last +1, we took a trip down Etymology Lane and learned that the word Identity has ancient Latin roots. It literally (!) means “repeated beingness.” Who you are, your sense of your self, is largely formed by what you do. Repeatedly. And… We discussed the idea that if we want to influence wha...

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Self-Image & Spartan Training

Best of Optimize big-picture Growth Mindset optimus self-image soul spartan-training Spirit

Atomic Habits: Tiny = Mighty
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You, a Quadrillion Times Better

James Clear wrote a great book called Atomic Habits. One of the things I most love about it is the fact that he quantified our +1 game for us. 🤓 Get this. If you get just 1% better each day for a year, do you know how much better you’ll be at the end of the year? What’s your guess? 1% + 1% 1% + 1%...

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Conquering Perfectionism & Habits

compound conquering-perfectionism Excellence Habits productivity spiral-up Work

The Plateau of Latent Potential
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An Important Concept to Understand

Continuing our series on the power of Atomic Habits, let’s look at why we often parachute off the Optimizing Jet (powered by Atomic-Habit fuel) right before things start getting interesting. James has a really cool way of framing this. First, quick recap. As we’ve discussed, little things add up to b...

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Habits

10000 Hours commitment compound greatest-year-ever Habits productivity Work

Michael Phelps’ Golden Gene-Inseam
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Swim Gods and Your Destiny (Pool)

In our last +1, we took a nice stroll down Brian’s Biographical Byway—exploring the power of flipping Identity switches. (You make any distinctions? Flip any switches?) btw: That Seneca quote with which we wrapped up that +1 always knocks my socks off: “It is not because things are difficult that y...

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Purpose & Self-Image

big-picture Excellence greatness purpose self-awareness self-image soul Spirit

The 4 Laws of Behavior Change
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Make It: Obvious + Attractive + Easy + Satisfying

In our last number of +1s, we’ve been having fun swimming in and out of the Atomic Habits pool. Most recently, we had fun measuring Michael Phelps’ inseam and noticing the fact that it PERFECTLY matched the domain he chose to dominate. (Does YOUR soul-inseam fit your life?) Today, we’re finally rea...

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Habits & Willpower

Discipline Habits productivity spiral-up Systems willpower Work

How to Build a Good Habit
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Easy as 1, 2, 3

In our last +1, we took a quick look at James Clear’s “4 Laws of Behavior Change.” I promised to help apply those laws to building a good habit and breaking a bad habit. We’ll build the good one today and break the bad one tomorrow. First, I want to simplify the four laws into three—leaning bac...

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Habits & Meditation

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How to Break a Bad Habit
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Easy as 1, 2, 3

In our last +1, we had fun tweaking James Clear’s 4 Laws of Behavior Change as we applied The 3 Laws of Creating a Great Habit. Pop quiz!! a) You remember the 3 Laws? And… More importantly: b) Did you do the theoretical work of dropping your habit into that model? And… MOST importantly: c) Did you ...

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Conquering Digital Addiction & Habits

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The Sorites Paradox
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How to Get a Big Heap of Golden (You) Coins

A little while back we had fun taking a quick tour through James Clear’s brilliant brain and equally brilliant book Atomic Habits. We forgot to chat about one of my favorite Ideas from that must-read book: The Sorites Paradox. Let’s invite James back to the party. Get this: “There is an ancient Gre...

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Abundance & Habits

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Growing Teeth
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“It’s Not Growing!” “Oh… There It Is!”

Not too long ago, Emerson lost his first tooth. As any parent of a missing-tooth child knows, it’s pretty epically cute and awesome. The tooth fairy might have visited and we celebrated the wonderful gap in his mouth. 😁 Fast forward a week or two. Emerson wonders why his new tooth doesn’t seem to ...

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Conquering Procrastination & Habits

10000 Hours Conquering Procrastination Habits Parenting productivity Work

You: Athlete + Scientist + Director
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The Personas of Habits + Mastery

In the Mastery component of our Optimize Coach program, we recently spent three weeks chatting about Algorithms. In Part 1 we focused on the Big Picture and how important it is to, as I like to say, use our Willpower wisely to install Habits that run on autopilot via Algorithms. (In many ways, our sessio...

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Algorithms & Habits

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Pilot + Co-Pilot + Autopilot
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The Art and Science of Installing Good Habit-Algorithms

In our last couple +1s, we talked about Seneca’s wisdom on the importance of “fortifying our pertinacity” until our will to do the right thing becomes a disposition to doing the right thing. That’s basically EXACTLY what we talked about a little bit ago when we explored the Algorithms Module we r...

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Algorithms & Habits

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Gains: Micro + Jumbo
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Aggregate/Compound + Combo Locks

In our last +1, we had fun hopping in the Optimizing River of Flexibility for a little CANOE-ing fun. (Constant And Never-ending Optimizing Experimentation for the (joyful!) win!!) Today I want to pull that thread just a bit further. As we discuss pretty much all the time, it’s (super!) easy to overloo...

+1 inspired by Note: Atomic Habits

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Algorithms & Sleep

algorithms compound Growth productivity Recovery sleep Work

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James Clear

Author, weightlifter, and travel photographer in 25+ countries.

PhilosophersNotes on James Clear's Books All PhilosophersNotes

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Want Better Habits? Start With Who #653

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Your Identity = ? #654 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Atomic Habits: Tiny = Mighty #649 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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The Plateau of Latent Potential #652 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Michael Phelps’ Golden Gene-Inseam #655 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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The 4 Laws of Behavior Change #656 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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How to Build a Good Habit #657 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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How to Break a Bad Habit #658 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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The Sorites Paradox #726 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Growing Teeth #841 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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You: Athlete + Scientist + Director #858 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Pilot + Co-Pilot + Autopilot #865 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Gains: Micro + Jumbo #926 Get instant access to all +1's! Join nearly 10,000 members in the 1,000-Day Epic Optimizing Challenge and start optimizing your life today. Join Now

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Interviews with James Clear All Interviews

How to Predict Where You’ll End Up in Life
#651

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Want Better Habits? Start With Who
#653

Your Identity = ?
#654

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Atomic Habits: Tiny = Mighty
#649

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The Plateau of Latent Potential
#652

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Michael Phelps’ Golden Gene-Inseam
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The 4 Laws of Behavior Change
#656

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How to Build a Good Habit
#657

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How to Break a Bad Habit
#658

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The Sorites Paradox
#726

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Growing Teeth
#841

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You: Athlete + Scientist + Director
#858

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Pilot + Co-Pilot + Autopilot
#865

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Gains: Micro + Jumbo
#926

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