Atomic Habits Quotes

One of the self-help books, or rather, I should say, self-improvement books that I loved reading most this year was, Atomic Habits by James Clear. While the whole book was inspirational, these Atomic Habits quotes went above and beyond to motivate me to build good habits. The quotes from this book made me think and change a lot of my own perspectives on goals and habit-building methods.

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Atomic Habits by James Clear

The Atomic Habits book teaches you how to set clear goals that are achievable and helps you understand that it isn’t actually about the end goal at all, but rather about the small improvements you are making each day. The gold is in that 1% of self-improvement. A 1% improvement per day in your daily behaviors can have a big effect over months and years. He compares habits to growing bamboo. Bamboo grows underground for a long time before it sprouts up into the air.

James Clear says that many people focus on changing habits in order to reach outcome-based goals (like what you can achieve) versus identity-based goals (like what you want to become.)

It really helps you hone in on how to go about choosing habits to work on so that you can find success in working on that habit.

I plan on teaching the things I learned about Atomic Habits to my kids too. We are currently working on New Years Resolutions, see my post for how to help your children create New Years Resolution for kids.

Building Good Habits

Building good habits is a neverending process. It is something that you actively try to do. One of my favorite times to work on creating habits is during the start of a New Year. That is normally a time where I reflect on my past year and create goals for the new year.

Being a mom of 4 means my day is honestly really filled to the brim. Many things that I do are on auto-pilot. But, there are certain areas I want to be better at. I needed suggestions that would take minimal time, but that would provide me a great sense of inner reward. I talk more about the habits I was focusing on towards the bottom of this blog post.

Atomic Habits Book

Atomic Habits Quotes

I hope these James Clear Atomic Habits quotes inspires you to work on a better you!

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.“

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

James Clear

“Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.” James Clear / Atomic Habits

“Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?”

James Clear – Atomic Habits

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits

James Clear, Atomic Habits

“Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.”

"Success is the product of daily habits - not-once-in-a-lifetime transformations."  - James Clear, Atomic Habits

“Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits

“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits

“With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.”

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision.“

“The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” – James Clear

“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. “

"Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit. This is a distinguishing feature between winners and losers. Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work. But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn’t matter if the reclaiming of it is fast. I think this principle is so important that I’ll stick to it even if I can’t do a habit as well or as completely as I would like. Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.”

Now that you’ve been inspired by the best Atomic Habits quotes, I want to showcase some habits I am working on.

Some habits I am working on building include:

Connect with each of my kids every day through a 5-10 minute independent check in

I can achieve this through reading a book with them, having a cup of tea with them. giving them a little hand massage, etc.

Journaling

As I get older, my memory is fading quickly. I want to remember the small happy moments in my life so that when I am older (or even just next year) I want to remember the small things about my day.

Take my vitamins

I’m terrible at taking my vitamins. I take the bare necessities. But I want to get better about adding in that Zinc, Vitamin D, Iron, and Omega’s too!

Exercise at least 2 times a week.

My health is important and although exercising 2 times a week doesn’t sound that hard, with my busy schedule the last thing I want to spend my time doing is exercising. But I know that it is important. James Clear says to set goals that are achievable. 2 times a week seems achievable to me, and best of all… any exercise counts. I can take my baby out for a walk outside and that’s getting me active. As I get better at this habit, I will get more rigorous in my exercise choices.

5 minutes of self care daily

My version of self care is doing something for myself of my body. I want to spend a few minutes doing skincare (washing my face, serums, and moisturizer) as well as haircare. My goal is to thank my body for all it has done for me and continues to do. After my experience through Hyperemesis Gravidarum in pregnancy, my body needs care.

Here is a picture of how I started habit tracking on January 15, 2020. I had already been reading, so I highlighted those days. Since I began my habit tracker on the 13th, this is how I set up my goals for the next month .

I first began by journaling. Once I was able to do that more regularly I added in other goals like reading, medication tracking, yoga tracking, and exercise.

Atomic Habits Review

I loved reading Atomic Habits and highly recommend it! It gave me actionable steps to change small things in my day so that I felt fulfilled each day. I keep these Atomic Habits quotes on my phone so that I can look through them whenever I need some motivation.

James Clear’s Atomic Habits book is a book you will likely want to at least 2 times (maybe spaced out within a year or two) to help you reflect and live in a growth mindset. I first read this book in 2020 and re-read it again in 2021 to give myself a much needed reminder.

This book reminded me of how I felt when I dived deep into the parenting book, Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen. Although, I’d say Atomic Habits was a much faster read and easier to put into practice.

Atomic Habits Questions

Books Like Atomic Habits

Have you read Atomic Habits by James Clear? Did it work to help you create any specific habits?