The Power of Small Habits: My Takeaways from Atomic Habits, Chapter 1

Dave Brailsford's strategy - "the aggregation of marginal gains." The philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything I do.

  • If I break down everything that goes into who I want to be and increase it by one percent, I'll get a significant increase when I put them all together.
  • Find one percent improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas - continue to.
  • If I can get one percent better each day for one year, I'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time I am done.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. 

  • A slight change in my daily habits can guide my life to a very different destination.
  • Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformation.
  • Time magnifies the margin between success and failure.
  • Breakthrough moments are often the results of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.
  • The most powerful outcomes are delayed.

*The Valley of Disappointment: where I can't see tangible results.

*The Plateau of Latent Potential: the gap between mastering habits from where I am to where I want to be.

Change can take years - before it happens all at once. 

Mastery requires patience.

  • All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision.
  • Goals are about the results I want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
  • The only way to win is to get better each day. 
  • Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
  • The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.
  • It is my commitment to the process that will determine my progress.
  • I do not rise to the level of my goals. I fall to the level of my systems.

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