s03e08 - Atomic Habits by James Clear

Lianne Keemink (The Self Help Hipster) and Andrew Chin discuss self-help books, talk about their obsessions and their pop culture pleasures.

BOOK OF THE MONTH
Andrew and I discuss Atomic Habits, the book by James Clear

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You can buy the paperback here* for 16.99 and you can buy the Kindle version off of Amazon for 12.00$!*
James Clear is an American journalist, photographer and self-help blogger. For me he falls into the same category as Leo Babauta, James Altucher and Mark Manson: all big self help bloggers who came up around the same time, talking about self-development.
James Clear has really narrowed down his topic to Habit Change, and the book 'Atomic Habits' is an amalgamation of everything he's ever read and everything he's ever written on the topic.
Andrew and I really like the book, it touches upon some of the most important topics in habit changing, such as:

It is about small changes! Getting little bits better, one-percenting (getting 1% better each day) as we coined the term in this podcast.
Identity and the way you look at yourself matters, but it's a way to get yourself into the door - not a way to completely change your life in and of itself. We get into an interesting discussion about it!
If you have systems in place, it is so much easier to do things, aka create new habits. Systems can be a step 1, step 2, step 3, but als other like getting an accountability partner, making the first 5 minutes of something super easy or habit-stacking.
It's about progress, not perfection
Andrew said: "Find the thing you want to identify with, and then prove it to yourself."
Longevity and long term commitment are important. For anything, for success, for actual change, and therefore also for habits.
"Just enough victories to keep you motivated, enough mistakes to keep working hard."
OBSESSIONS
Lianne: My dishwasher and making air horn sounds.
Oh and Poolside.fm! It is SO FUN to me for some reason. I listen to it for bits and pieces here and there because it just makes me chuckle.
Andrew: His Alexander McQueen double white sneakers
POP CULTURE PLEASURES
(Mostly Lianne, because at this point I'm 50% pop culture)

Blade Runner 2049: I watched it with Vin on Netflix and it is STUNNING. Put away your phone one evening, get some snacks and go watch it. It is awe-inspiring.
GLOW: Such. A. Good. Show. Also on Netflix.
Andrew asked me what I thought about 902010 (no opinion but my friend Susannah hated it) and Hobbs and Shaw: I gushed for 5 minutes. GO SEE IT!
Next book:
Art Matters by Neil Gaiman!

Other News:
As mentioned in the Podcast, we're bringing the 30 Day Challenge BACK!