‘Habits… are about becoming someone’ – Atomic Habits, Chapter 2 Notes

Posted on: June 22, 2022

Last Updated on: June 25th, 2022

Post Category: Book Notes

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About #onepageonepoint

#onepageonepoint aims to summarise new ideas from books on personal and professional development – with (approximately) one point for each page. Read more about this project here.

Today for #onepageonepoint, we have summary notes for Atomic Habits – for chapter 2: ‘How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)’.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learning more about the book, click here.

Chapter 2: ‘How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)’

• Once your habits are established (both wanted and unwanted), they seem to stick around forever.

• ‘Changing our habits is challenging because (1) we try to change the wrong thing or (2) we try to change our habits the wrong way’ (Clear 2018, p. 29). This chapter will cover the first point.

• The three levels of behaviour change are (from the outermost to deepest): (1) changing your outcomes (your results and goals), (2) changing your process (your habits and systems) and (3) changing your identity (your beliefs, assumptions and biases). True behaviour change happens at the identity level.

• For many people, there is a problem with the direction of change when it comes to changing habits. Many people focus on what they want to achieve, which leads to outcome-based habits, but a more effective method is to build identity-based habits – habits built on who we wish to become.

• Many people set goals and determine actions they should take to achieve those goals without shifting the way they look at themselves. They don’t realise that their old identity can sabotage their new plans for change.

• ‘Behind every system of actions are a system of beliefs… Behaviour that is incongruent with the self will not last… It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led you to your past behaviours’ (Clear 2018, p. 33).

• ‘The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity… It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this [versus who wants this]’ (Clear 2018, p. 33).

• ‘The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain habits associated with it’ (Clear 2018, p. 33).

• ‘Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they are more likely to act in alignment with that belief’ (Clear 2018, p. 34). For example, the goal is not to read a book, it is to become a reader, or the goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.

• ‘Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity’ (Clear 2018, p. 36).

• Your identity emerges and is reinforced through repetition – the more you repeat the behaviour, the more it becomes associated with your identity.

• Hence, ‘The most practical way of changing who you are is to change what you do’ (Clear 2018, p. 38), because what you do will be evidence of who you are – it is a “vote” for who you are. For example, when you write a page, you are a writer, and when you complete running training, you are a runner.

• Hence, to form a new identity, you require new evidence, and you can accomplish this with this two-step process: (1) decide the type of person you want to be (ask yourself “Who is the type of person that could get the outcome I want?”), and (2) prove it to yourself with small wins/steps (ask yourself “What would that type of person do?”)

• ‘Habits can help you achieve [external measure of success like earning more money, losing more weight, or reducing stress] but fundamentally they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone’ (Clear 2018, p. 41).

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learn more about the book, click here.

Interested in reading more? See my notes for Chapter 3.