Best Ways to Build Better Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear

Dang, just a reminder that James Clear isn't just a name on a cover. Man is a great speaker. This conversation was amazing from beginning to end. Thx gents

Every year for x-mas we begin with Mariah Carey and end the season with James Clear. 😂🥂🍾 good 2026 to everybody!

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1 Make it Obvious (re-design your environment), 2 Make it Attractive, 3 Make it Easy (Reduce friction), 4 Make it Satisfying so 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 have a lot of overlap

I'm half way through watching this and had to stop and comment. I've read Atomic Habits but THIS video has stopped me in my tracks. Hearing you both talk about identity, rebounding and rebuilding has stopped me in my tracks. I identify as a Professional Songwriter for Film/TV. I turned 50 this year. BIG milestone. I'm a wife, mom of 2 kids. Been writing music for years. Have had success. Had a breakthrough this year as a Grammy contender and failed. (didn't get nominated) It hit me hard. Really f**** hard. Made me question my path as a creator/do I stop this profession, do I stop this cut throat industry and no longer identify as a writer and become a florist or volunteer...... The last few weeks have been HARD and very much hitting the lowest depression point I've felt in years. When James said the word REBOUND, I immediately visualized myself on a court, missing the shot, but trying again and again. THANK YOU FOR THIS. I feel like I am ready to continue . Even write a song for your next audible . You both have changed my trajectory in life.

Ways to Build Better Habits: • Master the Art of Getting Started (4:54 - 6:04) • Focus on making the initial step of a habit as easy as possible, whether it's a "five-minute window" or even a "30-second window" of choice. • People who make it easy to get started tend to stick with habits. • Apply the Four Laws of Behavior Change: • Make it obvious: Design your environment to encourage desired behaviors. • Place items associated with good habits in visible, accessible locations (e.g., running shoes out, healthy food on the counter, guitar on a stand) (8:42 - 10:11). • Make it attractive: The more fun or appealing a habit is, the more likely you are to perform it (7:43 - 7:49). • Make it easy: Reduce friction, simplify, and scale down habits by reducing the number of steps involved (7:51 - 7:58). • This can involve chunking the habit, breaking it down into smaller, manageable parts (26:33 - 27:00). An example given is starting with just going to the gym for five minutes (22:03 - 23:07). • Make it satisfying: The more enjoyable a habit is, or the more positive emotion associated with it, the more you'll want to repeat it (8:00 - 8:10). • Embrace Consistency Over Perfection: • Focus on what you can stick to even on "bad days" to establish a baseline (18:29 - 18:41). • Showing up when conditions are not optimal is where you "gain an edge" and "enlarge ability" (19:50 - 20:26). • Adopt Identity-Based Habits: • Instead of focusing on what you want to achieve, ask "who do I wish to become?" and let your habits reinforce that desired identity (32:17 - 33:00). • Every action is a "vote for the type of person you wish to become" (33:03 - 33:16). When you take pride in this identity, you'll fight to maintain the habit (33:35 - 33:56). • Adjust Habits to Life Seasons: • Give yourself permission for habits to adjust based on different periods or responsibilities in your life (15:36 - 17:11). This allows for adaptability rather than perceiving changes as failure. • View Habits as Learning: • Your brain learns new behaviors through practice, and every skill you have was once unknown (23:20 - 24:06). • The goal is to design and control your habits, making them "self-directed adaptive instructional plasticity" (24:40 - 25:44). Ways to Break Bad Habits: While the video primarily focuses on building good habits, the principles of the Four Laws of Behavior Change can be inverted to break bad habits: • Make it invisible: Hide cues for bad habits in your environment (e.g., put unhealthy food out of sight) (19:53 - 2:02:01). • Make it unattractive: Reframe the negative aspects of the habit or associate it with undesirable outcomes. • Make it difficult: Add friction or steps to the bad habit, making it harder to perform (e.g., storing your guitar in a closet made it difficult to practice) (9:47 - 9:56). • Make it unsatisfying: Introduce immediate costs or discomfort associated with the bad habit.

The 5 minutes habit forming to master the art or getting to the gym is what we use in our preschool and it's called Adaptation. For two weeks, the children come for a very short time and go home. There is a gradual amount of time each day and after 2 weeks (sometimes less, sometimes more), they are ready to be dropped off for their regular schedule. It's magic!

The work of Andrew Huberman and James Clear has had a real impact on me. The idea that small, intentional habits done consistently can quietly reshape your life over time really resonates. It’s simple, but not easy. And that’s probably why it works.

1. Making it easier to start(overcoming procrastinate). How? A. Make it obvious. B. Make it attractive. C.Make it easy D.Make it satisfying. 2.Doing something is better than doing nothing.( In a right direction). 3. pursuit of flow every single time we do something is counterproductive. Showing up even on bad days and putting effort is crucial and often a differentiating factor. 4. Sometimes it's better to have stakes , competition etc. effort is the reward stuff. Identity based habits.

No matter how many times I hear James Clear explain the same principles, it never gets old