Atomic Habits: James Clear

Quotes

"It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, ‘The best is the enemy of the good.'"

"Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it."

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

Paradigm shift

An obvious classic in professional and personal development, I had to make sure I added Atomic Habits here. This book quickly helps anyone implement significantly more effective approaches to changing our own behavoir, and by extension many of the outcomes of our lives. I love, and have implemented, many of the ideas here to help build the habits for the life I want to have.

One example, included in the quotes above, is to really embrace the "good" in the place of the "best". A lot of my writing follows that approach (as I'm sure is apparent in more than one of my essays), and it gets more of my personal projects across the finish line than I'd like to admit.

The second concept that I wholeheartedly embrace is to "be the designer of your world, and not merely the consumer of it". Whether it be my personal health or fitness, teaching my young kids to sleep better at night, or improving my relationships with family and friends, embracing my personal agency to design my own life has changed my life for the better in more ways than I can count.