Atomic Habits

 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will"

-Romans 12:2

I have news: I am now a reader.

I used to hate reading. I always struggled with focus, reading speed, and comprehension. That's a big part of what made school so difficult for me. So many subjects required reading!

But this year, I made a New Year's resolution to read 5 books, and I actually already completed it a couple of months ago!

Anyways, I just finished Atomic Habits by James Clear, and I thought it was really powerful and applicable. So I'd like to do my best to share my tl;dr of it as well as how I think it can apply to the Christian walk.

So the book breaks up habits into 4 stages: Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward.

Given that a habit has these 4 stages, if you want to form a habit, you must optimize all these stages. ie Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying.

Then if you're trying to break a habit, you do the inverse (invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying).

And that's pretty much my tl;dr, but the book also includes plenty of actual techniques, anecdotes/examples, and general ideas on habit forming and progression that I thought were really helpful.

So how does this relate to the Christian walk? Well, I think our general human inclination is to be lazy, seek comfort, and conform to the patterns of this world so to speak. But if we really want to seek God's perfect will, then we should form habits about it!

For me, I want to read my Bible and have intentional prayer time with God everyday. So before I start work, I am spending just reading 1 chapter (or recently, 5 Psalms) and "habit stacking" (e.g. pairing a new habit with an existing one) 10 minutes of (centering) prayer. Only after that, can I start my work day.

By intentionally building these habits, we create space for God to transform us. What habits can you form to improve your walk with God?