Hello My Charmed Ones!
Did you know that reading is considered to be one of the most universally acknowledged success habits?
Statistics are thrown around all the time about how many books millionaires and CEOs read in a year. It’s always something crazy like 4+ dozen!
I know for some people, that number seems intimidating. They say the average American reads less than one book per year.
But personally, I don’t believe that it’s the exact number of books read that really makes someone successful. What I think is a more accurate predictor of success is that you are someone who values ongoing education and the way that is most commonly and easily practiced is by reading.
That is why as part of the Productivity + Planning Mastermind Membership that I host, we have a bookclub where each month the members who are interested are able to read along with a book chosen by me that addresses an important productivity or personal development topic.
(If you are interested in being part of our bookclub and getting ongoing support from me to help you live out your own personal vision for success, I would love to have you join the Mastermind and my inner circle, so please do click here to learn more!)
So, I decided that in order to share the love of books and truly, the success habit of continuing your education through the enjoyment and curiosity of reading, I am starting a series here on the blog where I will share one of the books we have read in the Mastermind and provide my summary/feedback on the book.
I am calling this series #BOSS Bookshelf!
Today’s book is quickly becoming a modern productivity hit, Atomic Habits by James Clear
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Here were my biggest takeaways from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear:
Big changes have small beginnings: Small incremental changes are what lead to success more than large sweeping changes. Example, British Cycling Team became world champions through small 1% improvements. This makes sense to me because it’s harder to actually sustain large sweeping changes and small things can domino into larger outcomes. Any change in the right direction, is change in the right direction that ripples outward. However, with the example of the British Cycling Team, and truthfully, with any and all changes people make, I question from a metaphysical point of view, whether the small changes really did add up OR if the focus and dedication to making small incremental improvements made them believe they had done enough to win? As someone who does believe everything happens in the mind, I just wonder if it was the focus on the changes itself that caused their expansion.
Trajectory as a productivity concept vs having solid objectives: Where you put your focus and having a goal in and of itself is what supports our productivity. You don’t necessarily need a solid objective, and in fact, sometimes having an objective actually halts progress once you hit said objective. So, you can just choose a direction and overarching goal to go for and make those small incremental changes to establish an ongoing pattern of improvement and success.
The tipping point: As with many things in the world, there is a point where our effort isn’t seen, until it is seen. Example of the Ice Cube melting once the temp raises beyond 32 degrees. This is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t give up on ourselves and the changes we want to make because we may have made unseen progress and then hit a tipping point where all the results of our effort are evident.
Don’t set goals, create systems: I understand this point, I really do, because with many things in life, the outcome you want isn’t just a one and done situation. Examples- weight loss isn’t just reach a desired weight and your done, you also need to maintain. Same with income goals, etc lots of goals we have require maintenance. However, I would adjust the authors words to say, Don’t just set goals, create systems. Because I DO think having that hard concrete goal is important if for nothing more than visualization because it’s hard to hold an idea in our minds of what constant improvement means to us. Until we hit the next level we often don’t know what the next level after that looks like. So for me, I think that hard objective is important to get started, but developing systems as a strategy for goal planning is necessary. I believe this echos my philosophy well of having habit based goals. Goals where the outcome isn’t dependent on a limited sequence of actions, but the outcome requires ongoing work and establishing new habits.
If you’ve read Atomic Habits by James Clear I would love to know what your big takeaways were from the book, so please leave a comment and share your thoughts!
xoxo,