Atomic Habits - James Clear Page 0,81
the book, I have a long list of people to thank. To start, there are a few people from whom I have learned so much that it would be a crime to not mention them by name. Leo Babauta, Charles Duhigg, Nir Eyal, and BJ Fogg have each influenced my thoughts on habits in meaningful ways. Their work and ideas can be found sprinkled throughout this text. If you enjoyed this book, I’d encourage you to read their writing as well.
At various stages of writing, I benefited from the guidance of many fine editors. Thanks to Peter Guzzardi for walking me through the early stages of the writing process and for a kick in the pants when I really needed it. I am indebted to Blake Atwood and Robin Dellabough for transforming my ugly and insanely long first drafts into a tight, readable manuscript. And I am thankful to Anne Barngrover for her ability to add a little class and poetic style to my writing.
I’d like to thank the many people who read early versions of the manuscript, including Bruce Ammons, Darcey Ansell, Tim Ballard, Vishal Bhardwaj, Charlotte Blank, Jerome Burt, Sim Campbell, Al Carlos, Nicky Case, Julie Chang, Jason Collins, Debra Croy, Roger Dooley, Tiago Forte, Matt Gartland, Andrew Gierer, Randy Giffen, Jon Giganti, Adam Gilbert, Stephan Guyenet, Jeremy Hendon, Jane Horvath, Joakim Jansson, Josh Kaufman, Anne Kavanagh, Chris Klaus, Zeke Lopez, Cady Macon, Cyd Madsen, Kiera McGrath, Amy Mitchell, Anna Moise, Stacey Morris, Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Taylor Pearson, Max Shank, Trey Shelton, Jason Shen, Jacob Zangelidis, and Ari Zelmanow. The book benefited greatly from your feedback.
To the team at Avery and Penguin Random House who made this book a reality, thank you. I owe a debt of special thanks to my publisher, Megan Newman, for her endless patience as I continually pushed back deadlines. She gave me the space I needed to create a book I was proud of and championed my ideas at every step. To Nina, for her ability to transform my writing while still retaining my original message. To Lindsay, Farin, Casey, and the rest of the PRH team for spreading the message of this book to more people than I could ever reach on my own. To Pete Garceau, for designing a beautiful cover for this book.
And to my agent, Lisa DiMona, for her guidance and insight at every step of the publishing process.
To the many friends and family members who asked “How’s the book going?” and offered a word of encouragement when I inevitably replied “Slowly”—thank you. Every author faces a few dark moments when writing a book, and one kind word can be enough to get you to show up again the next day.
I am sure there are people I have forgotten, but I keep an updated list of anyone who has influenced my thinking in meaningful ways at jamesclear.com/thanks.
And finally, to you. Life is short and you have shared some of your precious time with me by reading this book. Thank you.
—May 2018
Notes
IN THIS SECTION, I have included a detailed list of notes, references, and citations for each chapter in the book. I trust that most readers will find this list to be sufficient. However, I also realize that scientific literature changes over time and the references for this book may need to be updated. Furthermore, I fully expect that I have made a mistake somewhere in this book—either in attributing an idea to the wrong person or not giving credit to someone where it is due. (If you believe this to be the case, please email me at [email protected] so I can fix the issue as soon as possible.)
In addition to the notes below, you can find a full list of updated endnotes and corrections at atomichabits.com/endnotes.
INTRODUCTION
We all deal with setbacks: What about luck, you might ask? Luck matters, certainly. Habits are not the only thing that influence your success, but they are probably the most important factor that is within your control. And the only self-improvement strategy that makes any sense is to focus on what you can control.
The entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant: Naval Ravikant (@naval), “To write a great book, you must first become the book,” Twitter, May 15, 2018, https://twitter.com/naval/status/996460948029362176.
“stimulus, response, reward”: B. F. Skinner, The Behavior of Organisms (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1938).
“cue, routine, reward”: Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (New York: Random House, 2014).
CHAPTER 1
just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games: Matt Slater,