“Habits are not a finish line to be crossed, they are a lifestyle to be lived.”
On October, 16, 2018 James Clear stepped onto the set of Studio 57 at the CBS Broadcast Center building on West 57th street in Manhattan, New York City. Seated on one side of a raised table with bright lights shining in his face he looks across the table to four hosts as a production manager counts down when the segment will be live on air in front of millions of people.
“3…2….1…”
Host Norah O’Donnell begins to introduce the guest of the segment with the use of a well designed and scripted segment created by writers of the show, approved by producers of the show, rehearsed by O’Donnell and perfectly executed from the other side of a raised table.
“Many people want to have habits they want to break. And probably some habits other people want us to change.” O’Donnell says. “To make those adjustments, habits expert James Clear thinks we should think small. His popular blog gets 2 million visits a month. He’s also a frequent speaker at fortune 500 companies and his work is used by teams in the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA. Clear’s new book is called Atomic Habits, an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. James Clear, good morning..”
O’Donnell’s introduction is precisely 30 seconds in duration. Right on que, with immaculate cadence and execution. The product of a well-designed show. And with the 30 second introduction, James Clear is thrusted into the mainstream. Having written for six years on his own website, Jamesclear.com. James is no stranger to writing. His writing on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement has gained steady traction through untraditional measures by way of blogging and his website. Over the six year period of publishing on time and consistently, James’ writing found its way into publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine.
His consistent writing and research on habit formation eventually grew his email subscriber list to over 450,000 at the time of his CBS This Morning interview. On the morning of his CBS appearance, James’ was in the middle of the launch of his first book, Atomic Habits.
Years later, the book has proved to be one of the most successful non-fiction books ever written. With over 10 million copies sold, the book has been translated into over 50 languages and is widely considered to be the most comprehensive piece of writing on the topic of habit formation.
Atomic Habits can be found in locker rooms and boardrooms all over the world. From high school students, to doctors, to successful athletes, many have attributed their progress and success to their time reading Atomic Habits. Even the world’s greatest marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge who has twice broken the world record in the marathon distance, credits much of his mindset and approach to training to his time reading Atomic Habits.
At the core of the success of James Clear and his book, Atomic Habits are fundamental questions about life. What can an emerging leader learn from the journey of one of the most prolific writers and thought leaders in the world? What can the STC leadership community extract from the life and work of James Clear?
Questions can tell us a lot about our lives. Ask the right questions and we’ll begin to glean from our experiences the necessary tools to move forward. The questions we ask will greatly impact the designing we do in our daily lives. James Clear has often been quoted as saying, “Ask better questions, get better results.” At the end of his widely popular 3,2,1 Newsletter each week he leaves his robust following with a question to ponder. Questions that get his readership to think deeply about life, life rhythms and ultimately whether or not we’re living on purpose.
Take a closer look at the journey of James Clear from blogger to 10 million copy best-selling author and we can see a clear commitment to the exact tenets he has taught all along. A commitment to asking better questions. Questions that allow us to create habits by design.
How Can I Pursue The Ambitious Outcome?
If we’re all honest, most of us view life through outcomes. Achieve this. Acquire that. Add this impressive title, buy this impressive item. Outcome thinking has become pervasive in our accelerated culture. Scroll on social media and you’ll find a host of outcomes that will distract and move toward soul-crushing comparison if we’re not careful.
We’re in the era of perpetual dreaming, but often what that really means is outcome chasing. For James Clear the dream was simple. Write a New York Times bestseller. After serving his online audience for years he was given an advancement opportunity to write his first book on habit formation. Years of showing up each week to hit publish had paid off and he was on the way toward the next phase of the project.
For James Clear, dreams and goals and outcomes don’t really fit in the equation. What is a dream anyway? Should an individual wonder if a dream can be accomplished? The reality is there is a distinct difference between a good idea and a dream. At the beginning of the project for James’ was a conversation around engineering. With a background studying engineering, it’s no surprise that for Clear to begin the journey he had to establish how he was going to get from “here” to “there.”
“Start with the big ambitious goal and deconstruct the process all the way back to the chair you’re sitting in. If you can’t point to a clear path from the chair you’re in to the big ambitious outcome then it may not be a good idea. It may just be a dream.”
As the dreamers out there shudder at James Clear insight on dreaming what he’s really getting at is the designing of the dream. How can I pursue the ambitious outcome? We often look at someone else’s dream and assume some level of luck or fortune played a role in their success. Maybe it’s our own insecurities, maybe it’s our way of coping with apathy, whatever the reason, it seems we have a propensity to overestimate luck in someone else's journey and overestimate trials in our own journey.
As James Clear embarked on creating and selling Atomic Habits he began by studying the best selling books in history. A way of studying and gleaning experience from other successful authors further ahead on the journey. In his mind it was a way of designing the process to ensure the desired outcome.
In a single excel document he listed all of the 1 million copy bestselling non-fiction books in New York Times history. He studied their titles, covers and began to ask questions to find the common themes. What made their title so effective? What colors made the book cover pop? What was the subtitle? Where was the subtitle located on the cover?
Before a single page of Atomic Habits was written it was guided by the research and design process that would lead to the probable outcome James Clear wanted.
At the core of this process for James was a spirit of humility. A posture that says “I don’t have all the answers.” Before rushing to share his own thoughts, and his own expertise he spent months studying the successful books that came before him. He began to see the common path these non-fiction authors walked, the common tones of writing, the common covers and titles, the common approaches to teaching. All of this research drove his own approach to writing what would become one of the best-selling books of all time.
When it came time to do the work he wasn’t “hoping.” He had a plan. The questions of “how” will always be more essential than the questions of “what” or “where.”
What is my environment allowing me to do?
There is nothing sexy about writing a book. It only sounds glamorous to the people who’ve never done it. There’s a million unwritten books or partly developed outlines due to the fact that it’s not an easy endeavor and often about 15 minutes in, motives are questioned and we go back to reaching for the phone, the remote, or the other hobby.
As an expert on habit formation, James Clear knew this better than anyone. Having studied all of the leading philosophies on behavior change and habit formation well before he pressed the first keystroke for Atomic Habits he knew designing the right environment would be just as essential as designing the right process.
Have you ever wondered what the elite of the elite do as they perform, compete, or create? What was the training regimen for Muhammed Ali like before he fought George Foreman in the jungle? How did Neal Armstrong prepare physically and vocationally before walking on the moon? What did J.K. Rowling consistently do to figure out how she could articulate the vision and experience of Hogwarts or the wizarding world in the Harry Potter series?
For all the brilliant creators, athletes, leaders in human history there is always an element of mysticism around their processes. Surely they did something spectacular to access the creative genius. Surely they escaped to the Amazon forest to find the creative being in them to produce greatness.
What was the writing process for James Clear as he constructed the greatest book on habit formation ever written?
Nothing spectacular at all. He mastered the art of showing up. He designed his environment to do exactly what he needed to do.
During the bulk writing phase for Atomic Habits, James Clear would wake up in the morning before his family arose. He would step into his “protected hours,” which allowed him to completely focus on the task at hand before the day's challenges reached his attention. After waking up, he would get a shower, drink a large glass of water, walk to his basement, sit at a desk facing a blank wall, put on the same headphones, press play on the same playlist and write for 2 uninterrupted hours.
Same routine, same process, same environment, day after day. He would work and live in a messy word document, with fragmented sections, edits, new ideas, new thoughts and notes. When he left for the day the document was as messy if not more messy than when he started. But he would be done for the day on the project.
The truth is, and we all know it deep down, the path to doing what we want to do is often far less complex than we make it. It comes down to consistent effort over heroic effort. It comes down to embracing the project as a work in progress. It revolves around showing up around the task at hand continually to ensure progress is made.
James Clear recognized a significant component that often trips us up. He knew in order to do that, his environment would need to be designed to support that work.
Face a blank wall instead of a window.
Why? Because if you look out the window you may see neighbors, racoons in the morning, or realize you need to mow your lawn this afternoon.
Wear the same headphones.
Why? Because if you waste the first thirty minutes of the session looking for some headphones it may disrupt getting settled in and the game will be less about making progress and more about how frustrated you are that the kids left everything out and you can’t ever find anything.
Press play on the same playlist.
Why? Because as you begin the work and overcome a lack of discipline and you’re not “feeling it” you will stall and search all kinds of playlists to preoccupy your energy. “Oh I didn’t know Taylor Swift had a new album out.”
James Clear became a master at designing his environment and his process to ensure the work he needed to do got done.
Am I At Peace With My Effort?
As the writing process moved along and the book came to completion in some ways, the work had just begun. Now James was on to the book promotion process. After rounds of edits, formatting, cover design and all kinds of components. The product was finished and the work of getting it out to the masses was the supreme focus.
Now we can be tempted to think this part was easy for James Clear. After all, he had a book publishing deal, which means the publishing company has some responsibility in the promotional process. This is where the comparison game can lead to some inaccurate assumptions. “Surely he has interns or a team for this..”
The truth is the effort never waned for James Clear. As the promotional process of around 15 months began, James Clear took it upon himself to ensure the book promotion process went well. An extreme example of controlling the controllable elements in the process. In the run up to the book launch he personally emailed over 300 podcast hosts in a variety of industries. Individual crafted, personalized messages to over 300 podcasts asking if they would allow him to come on for an interview to promote the book and that the episode would be released the week of the book release. Of the 300, 75 responded and booked interviews. One interview in particular became a significant win for the book promotion process.
All through the book writing and promotion process, James was still submitting his weekly newsletter which by now had been active on the internet for around six years. Sort of a library of content that continued to expand the online ecosystem of James’ influence. Months before the release of Atomic Habits, James got a message from one of the producers of CBS This Morning indicating they had read an old post James wrote YEARS ago. They wanted him to come on the show for an interview. He accepted but asked if he could join on the launch day of Atomic Habits.
A measure of luck or fortune? Or is it the result of consistent effort for years? Whatever we’re pursuing the essential question we must ask ourselves - “Am I at peace with my effort?”
If not, why not? What can be redesigned, re engineered, how can we better relate to our pursuits?
If so, then surrender the outcome and know we’re doing everything we can do to move toward our desired outcome (dreams).
What Do I Want My Days To Look Like?
At the core of lifestyle design is purpose. What is the purpose of what you’re doing? We are often fed a framework that doesn’t get to the core of what purpose is meant to be. We spend so much time asking what we want to do? Where do we want to live? This house or that house? This city or that city? This career or that career?
None of those questions are inherently wrong and we should be asking those from time to time. But asking those questions will never get to the core - purpose. You can live in whatever house you want and not be living on purpose. Whatever job title - doesn’t ensure purpose.
The question that cuts to the core of purpose and one that is essential to James Clear and Atomic Habits revolves around what we want our days to look like?
What do you want your days to look like? Lifestyle design 101. Purpose-centered 101. Are the actions you’re taking, is the work you’re doing aligned with what you deem most important? Does it fit? Does it support your development into the type of person you want to be?
If not, then you are invited into the process of design. The agency and autonomy we get in lifestyle design is staggering. James Clear and the journey of Atomic Habits reveals the power of on purpose design. What is within reach when we re-engineer our ambitious outcome all the way to the chair we’re sitting in. The power of shaping our physical environment to support not resist the good work we’re trying to do. The peace that comes with consistent effort and mastering the art of showing up. How files uploaded years ago can find their way to someone who can open doors that appear as a “lucky break.”
Imagine what is possible if your habits and environment were designed to serve you rather than take from you.
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