Atomic Habits Book Review on The Sales Podcast

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

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Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast...

• In the same way we get a lot of power from splitting tiny atoms in the form of nuclear energy, you can unleash great power in your life with tiny changes
• Your habits shape your identity
• The four steps to building better habits
  • Make it obvious
  • Make it attractive
  • Make it easy
  • Make it satisfying

...the aggregation of marginal gains." ~Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of the British Cycling team

• Massive success does not always require massive action
• Over time, a tiny improvement can make a huge difference
• Habit improvements compound like money compounds with interest
• Be patient
• Be disciplined
• Don't slide back into your old routines and habits
• On a flight from L.A. to NYC, if the plane is 3.5 degrees off course, it will miss NYC by 225 miles and land in D.C.
• Success is the product of daily habits
• Be more concerned with your trajectory than your results
• Your outcomes are lagging indicators of your efforts, your habits
• You get what you repeat
• Good habits make time your ally
• Positive and negative compounding habits
  • Productivity vs. stress
  • Knowledge vs. negative thinking
  • Relationships vs. rage
• Breakthrough moments come after long, focused periods of invisible work
  • Bamboo
  • Cancer
  • Business wins
• The Plateau of Latent Potential
  • Change can take years...before it happens all at once
  • Mastery requires patience
  • People call you an overnight success
  • The Valley of Disappointment
  • The results of our efforts are often delayed
• All big things come from small beginnings
• Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak tree
• Building a good habit is like nurturing a delicate rose one day at a time
• Forget about goals, focus on systems
• Goals define the results you want, systems are the steps you take to get those results
• The only way to win is to get better every day
• Bill Walsh, Super Bowl-winning coach of the 49s said, "The score takes care of itself."
• Goals are good for setting direction, systems are best for making progress
• Winners and losers have the same goals
• Goal setting suffers from survivorship bias
• Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
• You must address the cause, not just the symptom
• You need better systems
• With the proper input, the output will take care of itself
• Goals restrict your happiness
• Goals create an "either-or" conflict
• A systems-first mentality is the antidote
• Goals are at odds with long-term progress
• It's a yo-yo effect

• We want to do more than win the game. Systems help us to continue playing the game.
• You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems
• Focus on 1% improvement
• Make small, easy-to-implement changes
• Why is it so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones?
  • We try to change the wrong thing
  • We try to change in the wrong way
• Three layers of behavior change
  • Outcome (Get)
  • Processes (Do)
  • Identity (Believe)
• Most of the time, we work from the outside in
• We need to work from the inside out, i.e., from the identity to the process to the outcome
• Shift the focus from what you want to achieve to who you want to become
  • "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm trying to quit."
  • "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm not a smoker."
• Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last
• The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity
• Take pride in yourself, and you'll be motivated to maintain the habits
• True behavior change is identity change
• Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are
  • Become a reader
  • Become a runner
  • Become a musician
• Get out of your cognitive slumber
  • "I'm terrible with directions."
  • "I'm not a morning person."
  • "I'm horrible at remembering names."
  • You create your own reality of negativity
• Identity conflict is your main barrier to positive change
• You are self-sabotaging because of your negative identity
• Progress requires unlearning
• So how do you form your identity?
• Your beliefs are learned and then conditioned through experience
• In other words, your habits embody your identity
• The word identity is derived from the Latin words essential, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly
• So your identity is literally your "repeated beingness."
• The more evidence you have for a belief, i.e., "I'm terrible with names," the more strongly you will believe it.
• The process of building habits is the process of becoming yourself
• Fortunately, meaningful change does not require radical change
• If a change is meaningful, it is big!
• To change who you are, change what you do.
• Trust yourself. Learn to trust yourself by doing small habits repeatedly that bring about the small results you're seeking
• You don't have to be perfect. You don't need a unanimous vote to become a new you.
• Just give yourself new evidence of your new self to create your new identity
• Who do you want to be?
• What do you want to stand for?
• What are your principles and values?
• Who do you wish to become?
• Maybe you have some big goals. Write those down, then work backward to figure out what you need to do to get there.
• "I want to write a book (outcome-based). Who is the type of person who writes books? Someone who is consistent, disciplined, and reliable. Okay. I am a consistent, reliable, disciplined person (identity-based)."
• This is a feedback loop. It's a two-way street
• Focus on becoming the right type of person you need to be, and the outcome will take care of itself
• Know who you want to be. Habits help you become that someone.

Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast

• Order the book by James Clear, "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones' by James Clear