The book Atomic Habits is a classic and a consensus among productivity and self-improvement actors (Youtubers, influences, writers, etc.). It did not introduce any new profound concept I have never seen in some other source. On the other hand, the author outstandingly exposes the ideas behind acquiring new habits. The idea of driving your habits in the direction of the future version of what you want to become is not evident in other books, and it proves to be a good idea.

I recall the example I witnessed in the gym I use to work out in the year I lived in Betim (2019 while my wife was in military training). There was this obese woman, she would show up every day at the gym, but I have never seen her working out. Some days she would talk to everyone at the gym and left. I recall myself thinking, “She will never get the results she wants if she does not start working out.” As time went by, she started to visit the running machine to walk for like 10 minutes and then go talk to her friends and leave. One day after approximately six months, I meet her going to the gym cafeteria. She was much thinner, I was impressed, and she told me that she had lost over 30kg in the last six months. She was shining with the results. And it all started showing up at the gym and doing no exercise. I love this story because I learned a lot from her, and now I have a book to reference when telling it to friends.

The high point of this book for me was a quote “At some point, it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, found the same lifts over and over and over” I never realized this precisely. Any great change or result will take time and will have long periods of boredom, times where it is easy to stop doing it or not to have the motivation to repeat it. The ones who can handle boredom the most will be able to go further in more complicated fields. I recall the movie “Forrest Gump,” and when I was a kid, it always got me thinking, how can a guy not smart get so much success in almost everything he does? Of course, it is a movie, but if you pay attention, you will notice that Forrest does not get bored doing any task, which makes him master the stuff he is doing. We rarely realize how things become dull over time, and at that point, it is easy to stop. To succeed, I think we need to learn how to deal with boredom knowing great things will take time and dedication to master.

Conclusion

The book is easy to read and introduces excellent concepts on acquiring new habits in your day-to-day life. I recommend reading it as soon as possible, and I bet it would have helped me a lot in the past to acquire some habits that took me years to make them stick, like going to the gym, eating healthy, reading consistently, investing every month and so on. I am looking forward to trying the techniques with the new habits I am trying to acquire, and I think it will make the process less painful. I may come back here in the future to tell how did it help (and if it has helped at all).