Episode 22: My Problem with Atomic Habits
Welcome to Season 4 of Dream Plan Action! In this episode I’m giving my hot takes on Atomic Habits and many of the similar habit-building hacks and methods out there. There are a lot of valuable takeaways from the popular book, but I’m not sold all the way on its effectiveness. Especially to those who are feeling lost and overwhelmed, like I was when I was taking all these productivity courses, approaches like Atomic Habits could be misdirecting our energies into the wrong habits that don’t actually help us move the needle, or at worst, trap us in a cycle of our own negativity. So let’s talk about it.
Here are some things I’ve learned:
What I LOVE about the book is the emphasis on the power of slow growth.
However, no habit-building method actually shows you HOW to select your goals and habits.
It’s not always healthy to mask the low periods we’re going through with productivity just for the sake of productivity.
I was imitating a lot of “healthy habits” I saw on Instagram, not necessarily because they were best for me, but because I was comparing my own life to these folks who looked like they had it together.
This created a cycle of me beating myself up for being “lazy” and “unmotivated.”
In fact, we need to work backwards from the FEELING we want to embody, and choose habits that will create that feeling within us.
No one can tell you what health, happiness, or success looks like in your life. You get to define it for yourself.
Resources from this episode:
Be sure to grab my free guide on crafting your mission statement!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicoleralston_/
Click here to listen to James Clear’s amazing story on Dare to Lead
Itching to adjust your desk ergonomics after I kept talking about adjusting mine this episode? Click here to watch the video I used to adjust my monitor height and provide neck tension relief!
