Why I need a system — Reading Atomic Habits by James Clear

Why I Need a System | Atomic Habits by James Clear

On What I Read — Log #1

I’ve always enjoyed writing. But something or another always led me to drop it. The same almost happened for this account, as after 17–18 accounts, I have lost the motivation to keep writing. I always had this nagging feeling that I was not writing an article, but things seemed too daunting.

I hid away from the feeling and continued writing an article once or twice a month. But now, things are different. I decided to write daily. What will I write? About the things I read.

I started 100 Days of Reading a week ago, and the first two books were “Make Your Bed by William McRaven” and “The Richest Man in Babylon”. After that, I started reading Atomic Habits based on the suggestion on Threads and a book club I’m part of.

The Introduction

Atomic Habits was a book that I always started and dropped after the introduction section. It was always the one gold mine I never dug deep. But now, I have the time, the need, and a specific reason to read it. Hence, I started it.

The start of the book is as interesting as ever. It starts with James Clear, the author’s own story and, specifically, an inflexion point of his life. He is unfortunately pushed into a serious accident and has to struggle to reach back into his passion for baseball.

Desperate, he could only control and change the small things in his hand. As he studied and continued improving these changes, he has seen a drastic shift in the daily life. That’s the whole idea behind the book. The micro changes that affect the macro possibilities in life.

The System Vs Goal

Now, this is an interesting part. Being young, I never had to think about my system. I was lucky to get by the necessities by momentarily working towards a goal. Have a test next week? I’d start looking into the syllabus 2 days before the test. Had to get an internship? I made the mistake of looking for it at the last moment. Finding a house to move into? I took the help of my father’s connections.

Luckily, I never faced any setbacks and was a spoiled kid. But things changed once I did something on my own. I wanted to write. About many things: my work, the books I read, the stories I loved, etc. Yet, I repeatedly failed in it. Why? There was no need to force myself to do things.

With that in mind, I only had a goal of becoming a good writer, yet I never had a direction to work in. That’s when I understood the meaning of the line,

You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.
 — Page 27, Atomic Habits

To put things into context, the goal I was speaking about was to become a “good writer”. For now, let’s leave the vagueness of the goal. The actions I had to take to achieve this goal were to write more. Yet, I always lose motivation whenever I try to do that simple action.

That’s why I am intrigued by the definition of “System” in the book. The system here refers to how I write an article, refer to the research materials I gathered, and edit the same.

That’s why I started this, the daily writing log, where I reflect on everything I read daily. This gives me two advantages. First, I can reflect and digest what I’ve read today, as I usually write based on my thoughts. Second, I can use this as an advantage to write more and practise more.

In what I’ve read today, I’ve only been able to gather the preliminary direction of a “system” and haven’t deeply explored the stuff yet. I think I’ll be able to do that tomorrow! That’s why I’m looking forward to reading the book this time.

At least, I plan to continue writing as a habit now. I hope you found something of value in this note today! Let’s meet tomorrow again, with better and more interesting reflections!

Thanks for reading till the end! Until next time — happy reading! ✌️