The Automatic Trigger
Subscribers will receive these summaries direct to their inbox. You can subscribe here.
There’s also a voice summary at the end. You can choose to hurry there to listen to the happenings at the beginning of the book.
Share this with everyone who haven’t gotten a chance to read Atomic Habits but would be interested in a book summary.
From the last summary of the book, remember that a cue is supposed to be the trigger for why you do a habit.
It’s possible for you to have been doing something for so long, such that it becomes a habit. You can’t remember what triggers it; you don’t think of doing it before you do it.
You do it automatically and your brain has been wired to do that thing.
When you want to stop a habit or form a habit, you have to be more aware of the cues or triggers.
You have to be more conscious about them so that you can take the right action.
Good or Bad Habits
There are no good habits or bad habits. They are only effective habits.
The reason this is so is because one habit might be bad in a particular sense and might not be bad in another sense. It depends on who you are trying to become.
This goes back to the identity we talked about in a previous summary.
If a habit draws you closer to who you want to become, it’s a good habit but it might not be bad in itself; it might just be bad in that situation.
The Habit Scorecard
One of the ways to catch yourself, do better, or change something you’ve been doing is to use the habit scorecard.
This requires that you make a list of your daily routine. In front of each of them, you can either place a plus (+) sign, a minus (-) sign, or an equal to (=) sign.
The (+) sign is for habits that are good for who you are becoming.
The (-) sign is for habits that are bad.
The (=) sign is for habits that are in-between. You can’t categorize them as good or bad.
After taking a stock of your routine or habits, based on the number of positives or negatives, you can decide which habits to drop and which ones to continue.
Pointing and Calling
Another way of becoming more aware of the things that trigger your habits is called pointing and calling.
If there’s a habit you want start or do, all you need to do is to mention the habit and the outcome or results you will get from doing it.
You also do the same for bad habits you want to leave.
By doing this, you’re wiring your brain and getting more aware of when to do certain things and when not to do some things; when to stop some habits or when to continue some habits.
Over to the audio summary…
Subscribers will receive these summaries direct to their inbox. You can subscribe here.
Share this with everyone who haven’t gotten a chance to read Atomic Habits but would be interested in a book summary.
Catch you in the next one.
I plan to do this as a 13-day series. So, in 13 days, you can learn all about the book like you read it yourself.
This is Day 4.
Make your comments, ask your questions and let’s start a conversation in the comments section.
