The power of marginal gains

I’ve recently completed a long overdue read of James Clear’s seminal (at least so far) / breakout piece, “Atomic Habits”. The reason I even picked up this book in the first place was because it resonated with my strive for constant, consistent self improvement. In a strange way (I use “strange” because I’m not sure if this is normal), I have an obsession with always getting better. A better version of myself today and tomorrow than what I’ve been yesterday, or anytime in the past (*whispering*: Any kindred spirits out there?). This is probably why my entire book collection is filled with non-fiction (for my brain) and self-help (for my being). Some of you might also be familiar with my random vlogging habits over the past few years. The reason why this odd pursuit has grown to be a part of my identity in recent history is twofold — (i) the desire to live and capture the present moment and (ii) to savor how far I’ve come and appreciate the journey (it’s always about the journey) whenever nostalgia strikes and I re-watch these fleeting moments in time; a younger time, a different time, a time where I wished to be where I was at this present moment.

tldr; In “Atomic Habits”, Clear’s message is simple: You can get where you want to be by being just 1% (an atomic change: a change that is so infinitesimally small) better everyday. That, he champions, is the power of good habits (and vice versa the destructive power of compounded bad habits). Am I convinced? Absolutely.

This is where Clear’s talk about systems comes into play.

“If successful and unsuccessful people have the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers.”

We’ve talked about why habits are effective in building you up for success. Now it’s time to talk about how to go about doing it. At the heart of it all, Clear talks about how a change in habits starts from a change in identity. When you’re quitting smoking for instance, it’s one thing to tell yourself “I’m not a smoker anymore”, versus “I want to quit smoking”. In the former, you’ve left your smoking habits in the past, and your beliefs of your new identity will drive all aspects of your new behavior. You’re accountable to yourself now. Every action you take is a vote for your new identity — this is the ultimate form of intrinsic motivation. In the latter, you’re still a smoker, who’s trying to quit. So if you slip up and smoke another cigarette, it’s okay, because you’re still a smoker, and you’re just trying to quit. This is an incredibly important concept. It’s all about being — first (i) choosing who you want to be, then (ii) proving it to yourself with small wins to reinforce that identity to yourself, and truly embody it. Everything else just follows once you’ve chosen who you want to be. Again, it’s the will that leads to the way.

Many of us (myself included) have embedded into our identities particular narratives after having repeated them to ourselves for years: “I’m the type of person who’s not good at math”; “I’m just not a morning person”; “I’m just bad with directions”; “It’s just in my DNA to be fat”; “I never succeed even with hard work”. Once these mental grooves have been carved into our being (perhaps from childhood traumas and experiences), we just continue to live this way in a lazy cognitive slumber for a large part of the rest of our lives, unless we choose to fight against these parts of our identities; unless one day, we choose to stop believing in these narratives that have been pounded into us by the contempt, jealousy and the in-sensitivities of society, our friends, our parents and ultimately ourselves. Break free my dear kings and queens, it’s not over till it’s over. And till it’s over, we can always get better. You can always be better.

Once you’ve chosen what kind of person you want to be, Clear offers a few very tangible ways to go about building the habits to get you there, centered upon what he calls the “habit feedback loop: cue, craving, response, reward”. To keep things as succinct as possible, I’ll just get straight to the point on how to game this feedback loop —

Cue = make your good habits obvious (i.e. put that apple on your desk instead of in the depths of your fridge; or implement a clear intention “I will run at 7 p.m. after work everyday once I reach home before dinner” is much easier to stick to regularly than “I will run once a day at some point when I’m free”). Conversely, make your bad habits invisible (i.e. hide your cigarettes in the very depths of your closet and toss the keys to it into the Mariana trench)

Craving = make your good habits attractive. Habits are all about associations. Perhaps bundle what you want to do (temptation) with what you need to do (good habit). Grab an apple whenever you play video games? Awesome. Have a chocolate after every run? Awesome. Or perhaps join a support group where everybody is doing the same thing — posting your progress pictures after a run in a Reddit fitness groups where everyone is progressing together? Awesome. It’s also great to re-frame your mindset towards your most difficult habits. Instead of “I need to go running”, perhaps say “I get to train and get stronger today!”. Small shifts, big changes over time. Conversely, make your bad habits unattractive and re-frame them in your mind.

Response = make your good habits easy. Optimize your environment so it’s easy to do the things you want to do and decrease the friction between you and your good habits. It’s smarter to reduce the friction to do something you need to do than to summon all your mental willpower everyday… For example, if you want to exercise, lay out all your workout gear beforehand. Or even better, wear your workout clothes for the whole day (if you’re still working from home of course). The two-minute rule also works well to help you gain momentum in the things you want to do. Whatever you want to do, just do it for two minutes. Read for two minutes. Run for two minutes. Most likely you’ll carry on from there but the whole point was to even get started in the first place! Conversely, make your bad habits extremely hard. Want to quit social media? Just delete the app from your phone. Then, you’d have to download and login to a new session whenever you want to scroll mindlessly. You’ll probably end up not doing it unless you really want to.

Reward = make good habits satisfying. Perhaps use a tracker or get on a challenge. For me, I’ve been keeping a small journal that tracks my days for (as of writing) 555 days in a row. Now, it’s really satisfying to keep seeing the numbers go up everyday after penning in my entry for the day. Same goes for my daily running — I’m already up 121km this year, it makes me feel good to keep going. In a delayed gratification world, it feels great to make the reward instant by making it visible. Conversely, make it unsatisfying to keep up bad habits. Get someone to be an “accountability partner”, and make it hurt. One cigarette? 500 bucks for your girlfriend to use freely. Oof.

For those of you who have survived my writing thus far, thanks for sticking through it, even through the boring parts — you’re already well on your way to success! I’d just like to end off with a few key takeaways and a story. Successful people probably feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom. This is important, especially because the 1% marginal gains of the daily grind are almost too invisible to trigger any reward pathways in the brain. We live in a delayed gratification environment but our brains function on instant gratification. With our good habits, we have to pay the price now, and only feel the rewards in the future. With our bad habits, we get to enjoy the rewards now, and only pay for it in the future (this sounds like a credit card…). However, know this — your hard work is not being wasted, it is merely being “stored”. With that, let me end off with Clear’s story of the ice cube. Imagine you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room is cold and you can see your breath. Ever so slowly, the room heats up. 26 degrees Fahrenheit…27… 28… nothing happens. The ice cube is still sitting in front of you. 29… 30… 31… still, nothing has happened. Then, at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (or 0 degrees Celsius), suddenly the ice cube starts to melt, with just that one extra degree shift, suddenly everything has changed. Similarly, habits and small changes often appear to have no impact until you hit that critical threshold, and suddenly you’ve become “an overnight success”.

Just remember, on whatever you’re working for so far, all the action happens at 32 degrees. Keep going.

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