Atomic Habits by James Clear consistently tops every bestseller list.
And for good reason: if you follow the ideas, you’ll improve your habits. Improve your habits, and you improve your days. Improve your days, and you improve your life.
What’s the saying? “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”
Emerson definitely said it better than I. But it means the same thing: your daily habits lead to your lasting legacy.
Which brings me to an idea I presented to someone the other day.
A friend told me he wanted to write. And he’d considered going the “Stephen King” route, writing 2,000 words a day, but he seemed daunted by that prospect.
I agreed. That’s a lot to commit to at the beginning. So I suggested he go the Atomic Habits route instead.
What’s the smallest version of that habit he could reasonably commit to?
My idea: write one sentence every day. Then don’t break the streak.
I find it hard to believe that anyone reading this can’t come up with at least one original thought every day.
It doesn’t have to be brilliant. In fact, I guarantee that 50% of your ideas will be “below average.” But so what? Half my blog posts are below average—that’s the definition!
It doesn’t have to be brilliant—it just has to exist! Do that for 30 days, and the 31st sentence will be infinitely better than the 1st one.
A writer writes. So be a writer and start writing!
