I recently got a copy of Atomic Habits by James Clear. I haven’t gotten very far in the book1, but I’m already blown away by the simplicity of the idea and the immediately actionable steps he lays out.

If the number of notes, highlights, underlines, and take-aways from chapter 1 alone is any indication, this will be an incredibly impactful read.

Below are just a few of the snippets I took down from chapter 1.2

“The aggregation of marginal gains…” - Dave Brailsford

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

A very small shift in direction can lead to a very meaningful change in destination.

You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

The compounding nature of a 1% change occurs in both positive and negative changes.

You have to get through the Plateau of Latent Potential to see the true results of your habits.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Progress is not linear, results take time.

If successful people and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers.

Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment.

Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

  1. Gotten through the intro and chapter 1 and it’s hard to not just keep going, but speed doesn’t equal true comprehension. ↩

  2. My goal here is not to just copy out great things the book contains, but to share how it impacted my thinking. This will come later…I hope. ↩