Atomic Habits
As promised in my post "Suggestions for managing the anxiety of freedom...", here's my ode to this book. I liked it so much, I have it in print and on audiobook. Maybe I'll buy it digitally too. It is that useful. It gives all the love to my Venus/Mercury conjunction in Virgo. Oh yes, baby.
What's my favourite thing about it? How simple it is. James Clear, the author, lives up to his last name and wrote this book to be easily understood and applied. It gives you tips and tells you why we are inconsistent when we want to make changes in our lives. But, above all, it helps you to start a new habit in a friendly and calm way. That is its premise, small changes that, once you repeat them over time, are what make the difference. Mia Astral, a famous astrologer, made a wonderful analogy between the book and astrology on her Telegram channel. She said: "If you don't Virgo, you don't Capricorn""; that is, if you don't apply yourself consistently to what you said you were going to do day by day, you don't achieve anything of substance in the long run. And I ultra-agree (here I show my Jupiter in Capricorn).
I, like many of you perhaps, love the idea of doing something positive for me. I really do. I have a planner, I write it, I imagine it, I set a goal, and I start. But then life happens and that's as far as it goes. I skip a day, or I don't do it as I had planned, and I'm already disappointed because I didn't achieve it. And of course, I think I'm the worst (read dramatically, please).
The good thing is that self-knowledge (i.e.: astrology) has helped me with this, and I already know that, if I get too strict and square with myself, I lose motivation soon. But if I can be flexible and vary the way I do things, it is easier for me to keep my commitment to myself. I give you a current example: I love yoga. I really do. I would love to practice it every day (in my head, at least). My problem is that I get impatient and push myself to go from 0 to 100 in unrealistic times (Mars in Sagittarius, just in case), and that's how I ended up injured. For the same reason, I can't practice as much as I would like to, but I decided to be patient and help myself in my recovery. To do this, I am making several small changes to my day-to-day life, but the best thing has been to be flexible with them, especially with the strengthening exercises or massage that I do at home. I've been at it for a week now and my shoulder feels so much better. That motivates me to stay committed to what I am wanting to improve, which is the basis of the book, especially the laws that the author proposed. These are as follows:
- Make it obvious: I haven't set myself very complex goals, and a little is better than nothing, so 10 or 20 reps twice a day is my base. As I said, if I forget to do my exercises at some point, I do them as soon as I remember and that's it. No drama and no guilt.
- Make it attractive: my gear is cute, looks good and makes me want to use it.
- Make it easy: I have put the exercise equipment in front of my bed, so I use it when I get up and before I go to bed, or whenever I go to my room if I haven't done it in the morning, for example.
- Make it satisfying: in my case, stop feeling the pain after the self-massage is a great motivation to keep practising. While I'm doing it, it's quite uncomfortable, but then I also apply local heat at night which helps to reduce the discomfort and helps me go to sleep. Win-win.
Anyway, this is my interpretation of his laws as applied to my humble personal case. You can follow his suggestions for whatever you want: balanced nutrition, sleep, writing, etc. The important thing is not to get discouraged. The book is a boost of self-confidence and a delight for people who are motivated by clear and simple instructions. You won't regret reading it.
Let me know if you do or, if you already read it/listened to it, what you thought about it. Let's see if we can agree on something that has been useful to you.
Photo: Original image by Pilar Gómez Alvarez.