Atomic Habits Chapter 17

Pain is a great motivator

This probably isn’t news to you. People don’t like pain. The 4th law is Make It Satisfying. Its inverse is Make It Unsatisfying.

But “unsatisfying” isn’t enough. If you want to stop a habit, you have to make it hurt.

The more immediate and more costly a mistake is, the faster you will learn from it.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be physical pain

The book’s example is interesting. It includes monetary punishments and mild social embarrassment.

Bryan wanted to get in shape. He paired many of his tasks with punishments. If he didn’t do this task, he had to pay his trainer $200. If he didn’t do that task, he had to wear the hat of his favorite team’s rival.

Key takeaways and implementation

This 1 is hard for me to implement. If I’m willing to shirk my task, I’m certainly willing to shirk my punishment. But an accountability partner would certainly help. No one enjoys admitting failure even in private.

I wonder if part of this is connected to chapter 5. Chapter 5 is where Clear talks about the importance of creating a specific and detailed plan for your habit. Do habit contracts for people to be more specific and more detailed? It certainly doesn’t hurt.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Author: James Clear
Amazon rating: 4.8
Amazon price: $14.99
Amazon data gathered on 1Oct2020
Review status: In progress

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