Original Article was published in my Medium Page
Photograph of the Book, ‘Atomic Habits’, which I bought for Reading
For days, I was thinking of reading a book, which can help me eliminate unwanted habits and motivate me to initiate new ones. You might wonder, what is there in a habit. Well, as per my opinion, habit is something, which one does on a regular basis to get the desired result. This was my understanding till last month after going through some good online lecturers and my wish to get motivated. From my childhood, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and be the boss of my own small business. In that part of the world where I was born, working in a good office in a brand organization take all the credits as if the society would turn topsy-turvy, if one do not fall in that category. My parents were of the same view and hence studies meant that you need to have great degrees only to go and work under someone else in a reputed organization. Obviously a great pay –package does wonders. It gives you great recognition in your family and society. So, the choice was obviously passed on to my generation.
In my school days, when I use to pass through the streets and looked with hungry eyes the sweets displayed in the shops, I thought if the income of this shopkeeper was more than my father, who was then a lecturer. Well I am not sure of the actual figure, but the income of the shop keeper was very high than my father. The best part was that the shopkeeper was his own boss.
Years passed and I joined organizations but the hope to become an entrepreneur did not vanish with time. When I started the book review website, I thought that one day, I can be a great Book Critic. Time can only answer, but what I learned from the book of James Clear was ways to achieve my dream with good habits.
If I am not wrong, many of the readers of this article themselves want to be an entrepreneur. Apart from one’s destiny, good habits are sure to help you in the long run. So, what is there in this book ‘Atomic Habits’? After reading the book for a month, I understood different ways to grow a new good habit and methods to retain the same.
Many a time, we wanted to start a good habit but we contemplate that it needs extra effort to do the regular practice. Result, we back up. The author tells this phenomenon as ‘friction’. So, if one reduces the friction and do the activity with a reward in mind, it works. There are some small habits which may contribute to just 1 percent but these 1 percent Act each day does wonders. The author quotes Brailsford, a British Cycling Coach, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything, you could think of that goes into riding a bike and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
This book provides a step by step method with great examples as to how to pursue the good habits and remove the bad habits. The author speaks about the 4 laws and how these laws can help one to nourish a great habit.
I am not sure about others, but I am definitely benefitted as I have started streamlining my works so that one day, I can become a well renowned book critic. I have also understood that it’s not possible to reach a great height in few days, but through small progress each day and by pursuing a good habit, one can fulfill one’s dream.
My father who aspired me to be a doctor is no more in this world. It was in 2020 he left for his heavenly abode, but maybe he will be happy to see from heaven that I now became an entrepreneur as a ‘Book Critic’.
This book do not bore the reader, except I felt the chapter Advanced Tactics, which made me think that this book can be a bit shorter, since I felt that it is the same thing written in a different form in the previous chapters. This tactics like how your personality influences your habits and how to find a game where the odds were in your favour was something, which we all learnt and knew through the previous laws descripted by the author. This may be my own personal feeling, which any reader may disagree, but I simply felt that the book may be a bit smaller, if these additions were not there.
So, in a small brief, given below are my thoughts as to what one can expect from this book:
a. This book has the ability to motivate the readers to start a new habit, which can help one to reach its goal
b. This book can make one understand how to be persistent with one’s habit so that it do not lead to boredom.
c. This book has the ability to make one understand as to how to slowly remove one’s bad habits from one’s life
d. This book provides with examples, how good habits performed each day had led to great achievements.
If I have to rate the book on 10 stars and 10 being the highest, I will give the book 9 stars.
(Please Note: The above are my own personal thoughts after going through the book. Your views and opinions after reading the book may differ)
Thanks for visiting the Book Review Website:
Thanks and Regards:
Mainak Majumdar, Book Critic
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