If you haven’t already heard, then listen up! Atomic Habits, the bestseller by James Clear, magnifies the importance of habits in the quest to achieve your ultimate goals.

From fitness to career and relationships, this book has got your back in building the foundations to achieve your desires. Even better, the book highlights that it’s simple and easy changes which can be the most impactful. 

Here at La Pochette, we’ve started to apply what Clear says in our lives, so it’s only right we share what we’ve learnt… 

Step into who you want to be

”The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become” says Clear.

 We’ve heard about the ‘art of manifestation’, but actually thinking ahead to who you want to be, and enacting a process to enable this, is the first step to becoming the new you.

Clear encourages us to think about the system, or the ‘how’, rather than just focusing on the end result. 

Tiny but mighty

In a similar way to the celebrated Nudge Theory put forward by Thaler and Sunstein, the action or habit which helps us arrive at our goal can be tiny. 

Research has proven it’s more likely we’ll stick to it if it’s ‘doable’, or a nudge, rather than an epic chore. Changes that seem small and insignificant can compound into consequential results over time.

Thinking about fitness goals, packing gym kit into our La Pochette Sweat Bag so we’re ready to workout, prepping oats or chia pudding for breakfast, or making sure we’ve booked onto our weekly spinning class; these are all small but achievable habits to create, and our future, fitter selves will no doubt thank us. 

‘Success grows where the energy flows’

Not to scare you, but we only have 25,000 mornings as an adult, so making the most out of our mornings kick starts us to owning the rest of our day.

Don’t worry however, if you’re a night owl, you can go back to bed and think about what to do to reach your goals when you wake up.

Delegating tasks to when you feel more energised and motivated can not only increase productivity, but it’s been proven to help with motivation in other areas too. What’s more, we can apply this logic to different times of the week or month as well. 

The four laws of behaviour change

In his book, Clear explains that there are four laws of behaviour change to bring all this together. 

When we first heard the term ‘law’, we did balk a little, but these are guidelines which are pragmatic, gratifying and above all, make sense.  

i/ Make it obvious

Give yourself mental cues. Have your gym kit and trainers packed into your Shoe Carry, ready to go. Think of keeping healthier food at the front of the fridge, or leaving out your resistance bands so they’re top of mind. 

ii/ Make it attractive

If a habit is pleasurable, it sticks. Love your GymKit and Accessories. One of our La Pochette team has vowed to stop running in old t-shirts, and invest in sexier kit.  

iii/ Make it easy

Book into a class so you have a set time and place to work out, (a penalty for missing it is a good option here too). These are what Clear calls ‘implementation intentions’, and can be really powerful in habit forming.  

iv/ Make it satisfying

We all need an incentive, so think about making a workout something you love. A friend of La Pochette started to resent running, so took up walking instead. The result? She’s much more content and is sticking with it.

These are the kind of laws we can abide by to create better habits. We’re betting you can too.

References 

Clear, J (2018) Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, Penguin Publishing Group, USA

Thaler, R H & Sunstein, C R (2008) Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, Penguin Random House, London