Atomic Habits: Cues

Today’s post will be short, but it’s powerful. Today we’re talking about cues, and more importantly, our interpretation of cues. Over the past several years I’ve been diving deeper and deeper into NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). This science, broken down by Richard Bandler in a series of books about magic (because it seems like magic when you incorporate it) breaks down …

Atomic Habits: Peer Pressure

In Chapter 9 of Atomic Habits, James Clear walks us through the three tiers of social pressure and how they affect our desire to comply with what we say we want: The Close The Many The Powerful Let’s take a closer look at each of these. The Close “You are the average of the five people you spend the most …

Atomic Habits: Make It Attractive

In Chapter 8 of Atomic Habits by James Clear, he discusses the topic of “Make It Attractive.” This means simply making us want to do something. For a long time, I’ve struggled with the fact that I don’t “enjoy” or “like” to do many things I’m supposed to. I have friends who are avid runners who chase that “runner’s high” …

Atomic Habits: Self Control

I don’t specifically remember the moment I was first told I was fat. I was definitely a kid. I definitely disagree looking back on it as a thirty-five-year-old. I remember a specific instance where my mother, someone who struggled with her weight, told me that I was chubby (or something similar) and used her father as an example. I remember …

Atomic Habits: Environment Design

In Atomica Habits Chapter Six, we learn about “environment design”. We know that all habits start with cues. Why not embed our own cues in our environment. If I go back to the first time I quit drinking soda, I can clearly see where it all went downhill, and how I ended up binging again for two years. That first …

Atomic Habits: Habit Stacking

In Chapter Five of Atomic Habits, James Clear discusses the principle of Habit Stacking. This simple practice of aligning your intention with at time and place allows your unconscious mind to have a game plan and help trigger a response to achieve your goals. The more specific with your goal the better it will be. Here’s the formula: “I will …

Atomic Habits: Make It Obvious

I’m continuing my reread of Atomic Habits by James Clear (no puns today, I promise) and in Chapter 4: Make It Obvious, I read about the principle of pointing and calling.  This is a process developed by the metro lines in Japan where the conductors and other workers on train platforms point to and call out key safety metrics like …

Atomic Habits: The Four Stages of Habit Creation

As I continue to re-read Atomic Habits by James Clear, I find more and more information worth documenting here so I can remember it and better understand it. Habit change, behavior change, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, etc. are all important subjects to me because of the way I was raised. It became clear to me about the age of 18 that I …

I Don’t Want to be a Salesman and Other Dumb Things I’ve Said

At some point in the fall of 2009, I was at a recreational softball game watching my cousin Bob and some of our friends playing Softball. While that detail isn’t interesting, a conversation I had was. I was stopped by two men, for whom I’ve grown a tremendous amount of respect: Colton and Ashton Parry. I remember the conversation because …