GA 261 | Building the Habit of Excellence with James Clear

This week’s guest is James Clear. Author of the bestseller Atomic Habits, James shared a wealth of knowledge with us regarding the different kinds of habits, how they form, and how we can successfully change our behavior. A written transcript of this episode is available for download here. An MP3 audio version of this episode is available for download here.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• A quote about the importance of habits (3:43)
• James’ background in athletics, science, business, and psychology (4:45)
• Why James is passionate about identity-based habits (8:02)
• How sports teaches excellence (15:55)
• An exercise he does (18:03)
• The four stages of habit formation (18:52)
• An example (21:58)
• Why he added the “Craving” stage (23:37)
• The first law of behavior change, “Making It Obvious” (27:34)
• About habit stacking (30:11)
• The second law of behavior change, “Making It Attractive” (32:52)
• The true power of dopamine (35:40)
• Breaking a bad habit (39:59)
• The third law of behavior change, “Making It Easy” (44:44)
• Using the reverse for breaking bad habits (47:01)
• The fourth law of behavior change, “Making It Satisfying” (49:12)
• The social reinforcement of habits (54:36)
• The downside of creating good habits (56:25)

Podcast Resources

• Click Here to Download the EBook Version of the Interview
• Right Click to Download this Podcast as an MP3
• Download a Free Audio Book at Audible.com
• Atomic Habits
• James’ Website

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What Do You Think?

How do you go about developing good habits or breaking bad ones?

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