Book Review: "Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results; Atomic Habits, An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Habits", by James Clear

Men are born soft and supple;

dead, they are stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant;

dead; they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken

The soft and supple will prevail.

• 道德經 (Tao Te Ching), by 老子 (Lao Tzu)

Learning about habits isn't anything new to me, but what impressed me about Clear's book is how well it ties together emotion and identity with a variety of different approaches to developing good habits / breaking bad ones into a comprehensive life improvement platform. Clear asserts that habits are only formed when we desire a change to our identity, and when we consistently tie our actions to that identity change. It's definitely a step above a usual "life-hack" book, or at least a lot of what the book stated early on resonated with me.

I think this book would come really useful when I build out my own habit tracker.