Have you ever joined a gym, gone religiously for a week or two, and then never seen the face of it again? Ever decided to wake up early in the morning, do it really well for 4 days, and then completely backtrack and sleep till 12 the next day? I’ve been on that exact same boat.

(Those of you who haven’t been through a version of this kind of thing, are you even human? 😶)

Since the age of 18, I’ve tried and failed to lose my few extra pounds, among many other things (learning how to play the guitar, executing relentlessly, applying all the knowledge I gain from devouring books, etc), and I’ve always had a great head start, and then lost my way. Whenever I’ve got some momentum going, something seems to derail my progress.

This lockdown though, that changed. And there’s one book that was single-handedly responsible for it.

This book drove home the point to me – that it wasn’t what I was trying to do, but how I was trying to do it, that was making all the difference. After 10 years of trying to work out, I knew all about the keto diet, intermittent fasting, stronglifts 5×5, crossfit etc. I’d seen all of it work in short bursts, but the one thing that hadn’t happened was sustained application, and that is where this book came in and completely changed my world.

I’m sure most of you have heard of Atomic Habits already, and for that reason, I’m going to give you my unique perspective on this book, and everything that I’ve done to distill it into a very easily applicable exercise – a Habit Blueprint – that you can use immediately after reading this.

The practical guide to the practical guide on building new, sustainable habits

What a millennial title

There are a few steps you need to take to go from where you are right now, to becoming an atomic habiteer –

1. Decide who you want to be
2. Vote!
3. Learn how to vote
4. Show up

Who you are > What you want

First, you need to start thinking about who you want to be rather than what you want to do.

When you think of what you want to do, it becomes a finite goal. Lose 5 kgs and then what?

But if you say, “I want to be a healthy person,” then you keep doing healthy things, and it doesn’t come unnaturally to you.

Say you smoke 10 cigarettes a day, and you want to stop — intuitively, when someone offers you a smoke, one of these statements sounds better –

“No thanks, i’m trying to quit”
“No thanks, I don’t smoke”

Embodying the identity of the person you want to be, makes the process of BECOMING that person that much easier. Just start thinking of yourself as someone who doesn’t smoke, and your mind will start believing it.

It all starts with who you are.

Start Voting

Once you’ve made up your mind about who you are, you start voting for that person. Think of your new identity as running for elections against your old identity.

Every time you do something your new identity would do, you cast a vote for that new person. Every time you do something the old you would do, you cast a vote for the old person.

This becomes a lifelong struggle. If I’m over my ideal weight at the age of 31, that’s not because I’m Christian Bale and did it for a movie. It’s been a life of habits that’s led me to this stage. Now imagine, I’ve spent a year doing something contrary to old me, and my body is in the best shape it’s ever been in. Does that mean I’ve achieved my goal and become this new person? And I can stop focusing on it now? No! That’s 1 year vs the previous 31!

New habits are lifelong commitments. Keep voting for the new you, and never ever stop.

How To Vote

Now, HOW do you cast a vote, and how do you make it super easy for yourself to vote for this person?

You do it by following a 4 step process.

1. You decide what you’re going to do — the ACTION that determines that you’re voting for a YOU that is healthy. Let’s say I think doing exercise makes me a healthy person. That’s my action.
2. You find an external anchor for that action. Something that, by default, happens every single day in your life. You wake up. You brush your teeth. You take a shower. The sun rises. The sun sets. These things happen in your day whether you like it or not. Find one of these things, and then tell yourself, “when the sun sets, I will exercise”
3. Find a way to reward yourself. Find something simple that you absolutely love doing. It could be as simple as browsing instagram. Or listening to your favourite song. Or drinking coffee. Choose something that doesn’t go against your primary goal (don’t eat a slice of cake after working out lol). Think of it just before you start working out.
4. Create a simple tracking system. Like a jar of cotton balls, or a calendar you print out and cross days off on, every time you work out.

My Workout Habit

Let me tell you about how I designed my workout habit. The old me didn’t exercise regularly. Me 2.0 is someone who is healthy, and does things to keep his body in good condition. One of these things is exercise. The cogs of the workout habit I created for myself were –

• Anchor – Getting my clothes ready for the morning shower
• Reward – a minute browsing instagram
• Action – exercise
• Tracking – on this monthly calendar I’ve printed out and stuck next to my desk on the wall

But there’s one pivotal act that unlocked the magic of this habit. Making it atomic.

The Key

What makes a habit atomic? Making it as small as you possibly can. I took a 1 hour workout, and condensed it into 10 pushups. Who doesn’t have time for 10 pushups? This last step is the absolute key to making your new habit successful. You start by showing up. Even if you do just 10 pushups, you’ve shown up. You’ve voted for You 2.0. Tiny sprinklings of showing up every single day, will start winning your new identity the mental election against your old identity.

So, what’re you waiting for? Start now. Go create a vision for who you want to be, use this habit blueprint to build your next atomic habit that takes you closer to being the New You, and start changing your life, one tiny habit at a time!

If you need help with building these blueprints, feel free to reach out on email, or drop me a DM on twitter. If you’d like to receive emails about powerful ideas I’m pondering, you can subscribe here.

Happy building!