[Book Review Eng] Atomic Habits by James Clear and My Experiences

 I have just finished reading one of the most popular self improvement books in the recent day, Atomic Habits which was written by James Clear. And I am glad I chose to read it because this book validates my feeling regarding my own life and the mishaps that I have done. 

So in this post, I would like to show some of my favorite quotes from this book and tell my story at how it relates heavily with me personally. 

1. "Happiness is simply the absence of desire. When you observe a cue, but do not desire to change your state, you are content with the current situation."

Happiness is something that I have been trying to pursue this whole time. Since few years ago, I felt the lack of joy in my life. My hobbies that I loved did not have the same spark anymore, it felt like like a chore. 

I have watched a lot of videos and gained new insights, but even though I understand the concept of 'do not chase for happiness because it will merely run away,' the application is always tricky. 

I do not think I am content with my current condition which result in the declining of my happiness. However, achievements do not equate happiness, as I have experienced many times. I am sure that happiness is not the amount of thing you get, instead happiness is the ability to appreciate your current situation. 

2. "If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don't really want it. It's time to have an honest conversation with yourself."

I have a lot of 'dreams.' To be an author, a polyglot, an active bookstagrammer, a translator, and some more. Everyday, I am filled with the urge to do something, to achieve something, to get myself closer to my goals. But maybe because I aim for too many goals, it feels overwhelming. It is scary and tiring. 

So I decided to focus on one or two dreams. It is still hard to abandon some for a while, but I always remind myself that this is a lot better rather than stuck in the same place. 

3. "New plans offer hope because we don't have any experiences to ground our expectations. New strategies seem more appealing than old ones because they can have unbounded hope."

I always had problem in applying the knowledge that I found. I often worry whether the method is correct or not, would I actually got the result I desired, etc. This ended become my own downfall since I spent my time overthinking, made me tired, and then chose to run away with my favorite distractions. 

Metaporically, it is like having different branches of road ahead of you without being able to see the destination. Even the next step of each road is dark, make you wonder is there even a road there?  

4. "If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment."

I have delved in the concept of environment is more important than discipline for a while. I have observed my own behaviour and I can totally support that statement. In my bedroom, it was really hard to actually commit and did my assignments. But once I went to the library, it is laughably so easy to start working. So this proves the significance of location and time in order to get you into the flow. 

Currently, I am trying to optimize my environment and planning to use my space as effective as possible, since it is quite small, so there are a lot of adjustments to make. 

5. "The idea that a little bit of discipline would solve all our problems is deeply embedded in our culture."

We can only rely on motivation in short time. To initiate a long term change and habit, discipline alone is not enough. So, I understand why people say that discipline is overrated. We can only maintain our behaviour with willpower for limited amount of time. It is more important to use the surrounding to enforce the act to stick. 

6. "It is the anticipation of a reward -not the fulfillment of it- that gets us to take action."

This is also one of the thing I realized during my observation. Often time, it is more exciting to imagine my wish got fulfilled, rather than the moment it actually happened. 

This happened to me in several occasions. When I gathered resources for the character that I want to pull from Genshin. When I waited for my favorite youtuber to upload their video. The moment I actually got the character or when the video finally released, the feeling was not comparable when I was just imagining the moment.  

7. "But more often than not, we do it because motion allows us to feel like we're making progress without running the risk of failure."

This statement hit me like a truck. I watched a lot of Youtube videos regarding self improvement and mental health, but I always hesitance to actually commit doing the tips. 

'What if it does not work?'

'What if it does not suit me?'

And several more excuses. 

And I ended up doing nothing because too much information crowding my head. Then I ran away to my phone. 

There are so many 'tips and tricks' and people telling you to do this. Then, you scroll the next one, they say 'don't do that.' I know that adults often said that we are 'lucky' to live in a world that is 'generous' in term of information when in reality, there are too many perspectives and opinions throwing around, make it overwhelming to navigate. 

The only solution in my opinion is to do trial and error. Every tips is based on one's experience and we all have our own past. So an advice may work on one person, but not for the others. So, what is left other that experimented ourselves? Even though it is a failure, at least we have less of a list of methods to try. 

8. "The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom."

Boredom is an issue that I have problem with. It is really hard to resist temptation to open my social media or Youtube and indulge in doom scrolling, even though I know that I will regret it. 

The fact I lay on my bed and curse my weak mentality to repeat the same mistake in the next day is frustrating. I am sure a lot of people can relate with this. The modern world provides us with so many distractions, easy escapes from the responsibility we must work on with. 

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The short summary of the book, "Sometimes a habit will be hard to remember and you'll need to make it obvious. Other times you won't feel like starting and you'll need to make it attractive. In many cases, you may find that a habit will be too difficult and you'll need to make it easy. And sometimes, you won't feel like sticking with it and you'll need to make it satisfying."

I personally think that Atomic Habits deserves the hype. The writing is simple and technical, so everyone can understand the content. The book also contains several stories from people around the world as the proof of the concept. I genuinely recommend this book, especially for everyone who wants to enact change in their life. 

Rating: 4,8*