“You won’t reach the level of your goals; you only reach the level of your system.” That’s what James Clear says in the book he wrote, Atomic Habits. Atomic Habits has already become the talk of my campus friends.
Starting a discussion at a coffee stall, usually, there’s that one Atomic Habits reader who just began it and then feels insanely eager to share what they’ve read. Or, not rarely, that person only reads the summary through their favorite Instagram Reels, which they always can’t wait to check the moment they wake up in bed.
It feels like the topic of one percent improvement every single day has become a regular meal during my campus colleagues’ break time, until it formed at the very least a slightly judgmental view in my head: that I’ve already “read” it and don’t need to read it directly in a conventional way. Then a small, stale understanding was created, and I didn’t want to live it out because it was already too mainstream, and also, there was no example of it actually working.
Days passed with the same understanding, until finally one YouTube video managed to fill my overthinking hours tonight. It had a baiting title with the keyword Discipline at the end, and a display that wasn’t mainstream. And, like a young person thirsty for uniqueness, I watched it carefully, and this video pulled me in with the word system, which turned out to be the mother of that “one day one percent progress” formula that had already gone stale in my head.
This video explained that discipline is born from a system around us, not only from motivation to achieve something. Because basically, our brain actually moves us toward efficiency in our behavior, so we can minimize how much energy we burn and that’s exactly what brings us to instantly check the story updates of colleagues you follow or who follow you back, which feels so enjoyable with all the information you don’t even need to know whether it’s necessary or not, and it doesn’t take much energy from the body.
Discipline became a great calling for me to click and watch that video, and how fun it was, turns out this was very different from the basic thing I knew before. It felt deeper and more logical to reach that stage of discipline when it added examples that fit our lives, like: motivation won’t last long; it’s only like the fire we know, and it will obviously depend on how many stimuli it has as its firewood. That’s why I often try variations in every workout without any continuity to repeat it for a long time, or something as simple as reducing one scoop of rice that I scrape up and let free-fall onto my lunch plate. Everything will last only a month or even just a day, from the moment I try to execute that motivation. The system we build is what brings us into habit, or more “coolly” what we call Discipline. So if you feel you’ve got that dangling fat hanging on the side of your belly and you try to go for a morning run, then set an alarm, place your jogging culture shoes next to the bed, and sleep with the image of you running tomorrow morning. This system we prepare before sleep is what will help you enjoy your morning run tomorrow.
Preparation is the main key to reaching that discipline. To simplify it, we become autopilot when there’s already preparation that supports our execution, because, as I said at the beginning, our brain works for efficiency. So if the resources for your morning run are already scattered next to your bed, then the brain goes, “Might as well go for a morning run today, I'm already up early anyway, and the shoes are already ready.” And then from those small tools, slowly there will be a desire to buy a shoe rack, and from that it will appear, setting a repeating alarm until you can wake up early without it. Then our brain will become more excited to invite us to run in the morning, and it even becomes sakau when it doesn’t get fulfilled.
It is Good, right? When a morning run that used to feel heavy becomes a habit. So the things we call productive are no longer heavy things, or things we have to force ourselves to repeat; they will turn into something autopilot because the system has already been built.
So Atomic Habits doesn’t only teach about how big progress is in percentages, but also a way of understanding how the brain works, so we can use it as best as possible in daily life. No need to feel burdened searching for trauma to turn into motivation; you only need to prepare it.
You have some really good ideas, but they don't quite come together in your sentences. For conveying ideas precisely, I'd suggest discussing one idea and one example in two simple paragraphs, and making sure the words mean exactly what you're trying to convey. There were a few words in this post, such as "scattered" and "trauma," that I don't think mean what you were using them to mean. Also, clarifying pronouns, such as saying "my car" instead of "it" or "the muffins" instead of "them," can really help with clarity as well.