"ATOMIC HABITS" (Chapter 8): Making Habits Irresistible

Keto Mom here!

We have to make the systems and habits that we ultimately want to create, attractive. If they're not attractive or if the things that we want to achieve are not attractive, if they're not going to cause a dopamine release, then we're not going to do it.

"The Second Law of Behavior Change is making it attractive. The more attractive the opportunity is, the more likely you are to become into forming a habit. Habits are dopamine releases, when dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act. It is the anticipation of a reward, not the fulfillment. - James Clear

Points to Ponder

00:13 "Atomic Habits" by James Clear

00:53 Get your mindset right

01:06 Create a lifestyle

01:36 Create healthy habits and systems

03:08 From a mom's perspective

03:45 Accountability

04:12 Move at your pace

05:04 Put it into action

05:29 Dopamine hits

06:17 Make the systems and habits attractive

06:50 The excitement and the anticipation

08:42 Pair them with something that you love to do

09:20 The Second Law of Behavior Change

09:59 How your body reacts to certain things

10:53 "Travelers Gift" by Andy Andrews

Full Episode Transcript

Good morning! Welcome to the Keto Mom page, we are diving into how to make a habit irresistible. So as you're tuning in, where are you tuning in from, every morning we're going through a book. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear, is the book we're going through right now. If you're brand new, posts new below, and I want you to know, you're going to get a lot of different things on this page. You're going to get recipes, and if you go through my stories, you're going to see my whole life. I am a mom, we have four girls, and we homeschool by choice.

We live in a lake, we love to play, and I love to talk about lots of things. So in my stories, I'm going to share my whole life, but here on the page, you're going to get recipes, keto tips, and tricks, different lives about food and mindset.

Because my 100% belief is if you can get your mindset right, then everything that goes in your mind is going to be better.

You're gonna make better choices, and ultimately the goal is to help you create systems and habits to reach your goals effectively. And to create a lifestyle so that you aren't in this vicious cycle of hitting a goal, falling back into old habits, gaining back weight, or whatever it is that you reached prior and then having to start over. It's a vicious cycle that the average person does over and over again, their entire life. And if you want to stop the vicious cycle, then you've got to get your mindset right. You need to be reading, and following people that inspire you. The goal is to create healthy habits and systems to where, you will now know, why you do what you do and how you stop the bad habits. That's the ultimate goal. So how was your morning, are you reading the book or just following along here? Either way is fine. A lot of this book is science driven, data driven. It explains why you do what you do, and here's how you stop or start it. So if you don't have the book and you're following along, my encouragement to you would be to get the book because some of it is very visual, with the data and the things that we are talking about. I don't go over the actual stories, but the stories are powerful.

I want to share my "Mom's" point of view with you

It's all data driven and not just I think this is going to work. He talks about the science and the experiments and how they have come up with why they do what they do.

My goal is every morning, to give you a tiny bit of what he's talking about. Not to read the whole chapter, but to help give you the "mom understanding" of what he's talking about.

When I talk about eating better, talking about Ketones or talking about why I do what we do. My goal is to give you a very simple, here's how I understand it, from a mom's perspective. And that hopefully I do that with everything, whether it's the Keto diet, or helping you work out or answering any of your questions. I'll go, here's the easiest break down, of how I understand the process, and hopefully, that helps you on your journey. So we're on chapter eight, I don't ever want you to feel like I'm behind or I can't keep up, I'm just going to quit, because that's that's not the point.

The point is to help with accountability, to keep you going.

And if you're on chapter six, I want you to actually read it at the pace that you can understand it and implement it. Anything that you do in any sort of wisdom or knowledge or anything that you're learning, there is a point of taking action. You never want to be overwhelmed to the point where you stop. So if you need to move at your pace, but also know there's accountability here for you. I just want to help with that. But if you're not putting it into action, it doesn't matter because it's never going to work. I have an entire bookshelf over there of incredible books, and they have all taught me something. But if I read all of those books, and then put them back on the shelf and go, that was great, but never take action on what I've learned, is it adding value to my life, or is it serving me? No, not at all.

So the point is, every time you're learning something, it might be overwhelming, but take that one little thing and put it into play.

Whether you're on chapter one, four, or eight, or maybe your ahead, doesn't matter. The point is to always take one thing that you've learned and put it into action. So we're on chapter eight, and a lot of it was science. He talks about a lot of stories, have you guys ever heard the word dopamine? Like "You've got a dopamine hit"...

And I think the more we have implemented technology into our lives, the more that people have studied the brain, they're finding these dopamine hits, and a lot of it. Even if you look at your kids, yourself, or technology, like picking up your phone, scrolling through social media, playing the video game, watching the movie. All of these creates this dopamine in your brain, it's like a drug. Sugar is like a drug, and there's lots of things that just by anticipating it, creates dopamine in your system, and it makes you excited. That's what he's talking about in this chapter. First of all, he explained about the food industry, how the modern food industry and the overeating habits have spurred on the second law of behavior of change, where they make it attractive.

So we have to make the systems and habits that we ultimately want to create, attractive. If they're not attractive or if the things that we want to achieve are not attractive, if they're not going to cause a dopamine release, then we're not going to do it.

Why do you go and grab your phone, scroll through social media, watch that TV show, or eat the sugar. He then talks about how, even before you achieve the reward or the goal, it's the excitement and the anticipation that causes you to want to go and do it. It's not even the reward, it's not even the after, but it's the dopamine. I can see it in lots of things, even in kids wanting to watch a movie or scroll through social media, and how things have a hold on us, because of the anticipation.

So he says "If you want to increase the odds that a behavior will occur, then you need to make it attractive. Throughout our discussion of the second law, it is a goal to learn how to make your habits irresistible".

And so he says "You have to want to crave it"... So he talks about the dopamine, and the feedback loop. He says "Habits are a dopamine driven feedback loop. When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is when dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you expect it. It's the anticipation of reward"... So he talks about how children anticipate Christmas, but it's not even about opening the gifts but the excitement before Christmas that causes this dopamine release. So he gives you a whole bunch of graphs to look at. Here's ultimately setting dates and specific times and all these different things.

So for example, if you want to check your emails and you know you've got to do a crazy email check, he says pair them with something that you love to do.

For example "I'm going to go get my nails done or have a pedicure, while I check my emails"... If you keep doing it, it's going to create a habit, I mean you really should not be getting your nails done every day. But if you have to check something off the list for that week, hopefully it creates a habit of actually checking a long list of emails and going through them. So he talks about "I will only do this, when I'm doing this"... For example, "I want to watch a certain show, only if I work out"... He says

So I'm going to do this, if I do this. Like I'm going to work out and if I do, I get to watch my show.

Honestly, this chapter was just to give you the understanding of how your body reacts to certain things. The dopamine release, coupling it with something that you have to do, with what you want to do, to make a new habit or goal.

So that's what chapter eight is about, and I think it's super great. The next chapter is the role of family and friends in shaping your habits, or lack thereof.

Have you guys heard the phrase you are, who you hang around with? You are like the top five people that you hang around with, it could be bad or it could be great.

So I hope that's helpful. I'd love to know what you think of the chapter, do you feel like it's helping you get an awareness of creating systems and habits? For those of you who are going through the "Miracle Morning", are you doing it consistently and how are you feeling.

Lastly, this is the book that we're going to go through next when we're done with "Atomic Habits". It'll be mid July, but it's called the "Travelers Gift" by Andy Andrews. This is going to be a completely different book, it's going to give you perspective on life. It's a sweet book, probably one of my favorites, if you want to grab it. We'll start going through the "Travelers Gift" by Andy Andrews mid July. So hopefully it's helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, continue to tune into the page for recipes, tips and tricks on anything that you've got questions about.

That's all I've got, I hope you have a great morning and we'll talk to you soon.

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