Building Habits that stick - The Fundamentals
Why tiny changes make a big difference
🕳️The Plot
“ON THE FINAL day of my sophomore year of high school, I was hit in the face with a baseball bat during a baseball match.
The bat smashed into my face with such force that it crushed my nose into a distorted U-shape.
The collision sent the soft tissue of my brain slamming into the inside of my skull. Immediately, a wave of swelling surged throughout my head.
In a fraction of a second, I had a broken nose, multiple skull fractures, and two shattered eye sockets.”
While I slipped into a coma, the hospital sent a priest and a social worker to comfort my parents. It was the same priest who had met with them a decade earlier on the evening they found out my sister had cancer.”
The story you just read belongs to James Clear, the writer of Atomic Habits it might have been a little dramatic to open that way, but I needed you to have a mental picture of James Clear unique story to under where I’m coming from —
Welcome to today’s Episode which is a continuation of last week Episode, let’s proceed;
After the tragic incident happened to him, he felt really devastated. His case was so severe he had to be carried in an Air ambulance to the Hospital where he was treated.
He woke up and lost his sense of smell and his eye popped out of his eye lid when he tried to sneeze.
He had to undergo physical therapy after his surgery as his eye gave his brain two different signals and he couldn’t walk in a straight line.
At the time this happened, he was one of the best baseball players in his high school and was following in his father’s footsteps.
❤️🩹The Recovery
“The following months were hard. It felt like everything in my life was on pause.”
But my return to baseball was not smooth. When the season rolled around, I was the only junior to be cut from the varsity baseball team.”
Despite my lackluster high school career, I still believed I could become a great player. And I knew that if things were going to improve, I was the one responsible for making it happen.
The turning point came two years after my injury, when I began college at Denison University.
While my peers stayed up late and played video games, I built good sleep habits and went to bed early each night. In the messy world of a college dorm, I made a point to keep my room neat and tidy.
These improvements were minor, but they gave me a sense of control over my life. I started to feel confident again. And this growing belief in myself rippled into the classroom as I improved my study habits and managed to earn straight A’s during my first year.
A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.”
But it was not until my senior season that my sleep habits, study habits, and strength-training habits really began to pay off.
Six years after I had been hit in the face with a baseball bat, flown to the hospital, and placed into a coma, I was selected as the top male athlete at Denison University and named to the ESPN Academic All-America Team—an honor given to just thirty-three players across the country.
By the time I graduated, I was listed in the school record books in eight different categories. That same year, I was awarded the university’s highest academic honor, the President’s Medal.”
The Book draws from science-based Evidence from Biology, Neuroscience and Philosophy
⛳WHY SMALL HABITS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Whether it is losing weight, building a business while you work a 9-5 job, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, that isn't usually the case.
A perfect example is “Mummy zee” who commented under a tweet saying she wakes up 4am to cook for her husband, and this totally changed her family’s life as they amassed more than ₦5,000,000.00 in cash and gifts combined.
At first glance it might seem the reward came from just that tweet, but the truth is that she had been tweeting about how much she loves her husband and how she wants God’s blessings on him. Her small efforts added up over time, and eventually opportunities came her way.
Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.
Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
I read Atomic Habits in 2021. Using its principles I finished the book, which was the first time I had ever finished any book. It was a segue into productivity and it taught me consistency, which I still follow to this day.
If there’s any one thing you should take away from today’s newsletter it’s that a 1% increase today can amount to a lot in three months, six months, twenty years and so on.
Now that you know how important tiny habits are, next week we will look at how your habits shape your identity and what you can do about it.
🪙RESOURCE SECTION
📽️Youtube video : 55 Minutes of Social Media Content Strategy for Entrepreneurs
📕Book Recomedation : Atomic Habit- James clear
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That was it for today. Have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday!
— Dave♦|TheGrowthProject
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