Atomic habits: Tiny changes, Remarkable Results - Chapter 7 Summary

THE 1ST LAW : Make It Obvious
Chapter 7 : The Secret to Self-Control

Case study: addicted soldiers during Vietnam war, Robins found that approximately nine out of ten soldiers who used heroin in Vietnam eliminated their addiction nearly overnight once they returned home i.e. that addictions could spontaneously dissolve if there was a radical change in the environment. When the context changed, so did the habit.

Bad habits feeds itself. When you feel bad, you eat junk food. Because you eat junk food, you feel bad.
This is called “cue-induced wanting”: an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it.
The punch line is You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.
It takes too much energy. In the short-run, you can choose to overpower temptation. In the long- run, we become a product of the environment that we live in.

A more reliable approach is to cut bad habits off at the source.
For instance, If you can’t seem to get any work done, leave your phone in another room for a few hours.
This practice is an inversion of the 1st Law of Behavior Change. Rather than make it obvious, you can make it invisible.

Self-control is a short-term strategy. You may be able to resist temptation once or twice, but it’s unlikely you can do it every time. It's better to work on optimizing your environment. This is the secret to self-control. Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.

Chapter Summary

• The inversion of the 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it invisible.
• Once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten.
• People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It’s easier to avoid temptation than resist it.
• One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.
• Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.