Daily Habits & Routines

The Four Laws of Behavior Change: How to Create Good Habits and break bad ones

kasiryeashiraf

May 14, 2025

6 Min Read

28 Views

0 Comments

In all our lives as humans, we can’t do away with the science of habit formation as we need them daily to run our lives. Have you ever noticed that for some people, its easier to stick to healthy habits whereas for others they struggle with keeping healthy habits or breaking the negative bad habits.

The whole science behind this theory is discussed clearly by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. He summed up everything in Four Laws; known as The Four Laws of Behavior Change. In this article; we are going to explore how these laws can be applied in our everyday lives to create good habits and also get rid of bad ones with live examples. Dive in.

How to create good habits

Are you in a situation where you want to change something about your life but whenever you try it feels like you are not making progress. For example you want to get fit, but somehow you dislike working out or just feel lazy. James Clear came up with Four Laws of Behaviour Change (system) and we are going to explore how we can utilize them to our advantage. 

The four steps to creating a new habit with lasting change include; making it obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. For this subheading we are going to consider a person who wants to lose weight. 

1. Make it Obvious

The first step in creating good habits is being self aware. You must have a clear vision about the habit you want to develop. You must also be aware of the environment as it plays a key part in habit formation. This awareness helps build habits from a conscious perspective rather than an unconscious one. Ensure to fill your surroundings with clues that align with the habit in development. Make sure they are clear, visible and ever available as habits grow through repetition.  

Application for Case Study: How can we achieve weight loss; considering the Four Laws of Behavior Change

The first question you have to ask yourself is: How can I make this new habit of going to the gym obvious? We know that in order to achieve this, we have to make our clues visible, clear and ever present. The clues we can have in such a scenario are gym shoes, gym towels, etc. (outfits for gym workouts). Keep these outfits close in your sight. This optimizes your environment with clues that you are actually ready to start working out. 

2. Make it attractive 

After filling our environment with enough clues to make the habit development obvious, the next is making sure the new habit is attractive. The reason for this is we as humans are more likely to be triggered to do things or behaviours that are satisfying and enjoyable to oneself. Therefore we have to make sure that we can naturally get drawn to the activity.

Application for Case Study

In order to lose weight, our end goal of feeling fit or more energy is the craving (attractive thing about building the new habit). From my personal experience, we can make habits attractive by combining an activity which we like doing with one we need to do.

In this scenario, we want to lose weight (need). But maybe the person also likes listening to music or podcasts ( like ). Therefore applying this technique of pairing what we need and what we want can help create the motivation we need to work out. Over time, this helps bundle up make the new habit less boring since it’s done beside one that you strongly desire. 

Another working strategy for making a habit attractive is by joining a community where you all share the same goal. Maybe you can sign up for a weight loss program at your favorite gym. The fact that all the people in this program are focusing on the same goal. This makes the habit attractive for all the participants. 

3. Make it Easy

Have you heard the saying that “the easier a behaviour is to do, the more likely it is to become a habit.” That’s right as simplicity helps accomplish tasks easier even with lower levels of motivation. In order to successfully build a good habit, we have to use the simplest strategy possible. 

Application for the case study: How can we make hitting the gym easy?

The first way is in preparation. Since we are trying to build something new, we need to ensure that we prepare ourselves in time and fill our environment with clues. For example, instead of preparing your gym outfit one hour into the session, prepare it the day before such that the body feels ready to workout; but when you prepare on gym day, you may fail to grasp the motivation to continue as habits form slowly.

The other way this can be done is starting small. You don’t need to hit the gym seven days a week to prove to yourself that you are ready to cut weight. Start small, maybe from 2 days a week and increase gradually as you are comfortable. Also keep your sessions short to prevent burnouts and anything that can make you hate the process of weight loss. 

4. Make it Satisfying

The fourth law of behavior change focuses on reward. In order to easily develop better habits, they must be associated with a reward as it’s easier to repeat actions that reward us in one way or another. For example; buying yourself a soda after work can push you to go to work tomorrow as you know their is an immediate reward to it. 

Application to Case Study: 

The overall essence of making a habit satisfying is to get motivated to keep showing up. There are many ways we can reward ourselves after working out. 

(i) Ensure to celebrate small wins. Do not wait for the day you lose all the weight you wanted to be happy. Celebrate every gym session as it comes as this will help you find the momentum to keep showing up. 

(ii) Ensure to track your progress, either through a journal, or taking weekly weight readings to track progress. You can also use a consistency tracker (streak tracker) to keep you going. 

How to break a Bad Habit.

In order to break habits; all we do is reverse the four laws of behavior change into these news laws.

1. Make the Habit Invisible

This is achieved through elimination of any clues relating to the bad habit. They should be made invisible from the environment to eliminate triggers. From the case study of weight. We can make the clues invisible by removing all junk food from the house and replacing it with healthier food. 

2. Make the Habit Unattractive

The bad habit has to be made unattractive; i.e you must be sure you convince yourself about how the habit is influencing your life. This can be done through identifying the real repercussions of the habit onto you. In our case study of weight. You can start by asking yourself ‘If I keep eating unhealthy? How will my life be in 10 years from now and ask yourself if it is the life you truly desire.’ This helps in reframing the mind for positive growth. 

3. Make the Habit Hard

The third inverted law of behavior change is making the habit harder than it was. If junk food is easily accessible because it is in your fridge, put all of it away and this makes it harder to get hence making the habit harder which is progress for breaking bad habits.

4. Make it Unsatisfying

One way we can achieve this is making the good habit more satisfying. Like working out feels better than eating junk food and late night snacks. The other way is pairing this habit with something you strongly dislike. For example; if I eat junk food today, I will sit in the rain. This can help you manage yourself better.

Conclusion

In this article, we have thoroughly explored the Four Laws Of Behavior as Per Atomic Habits Author James Clear. We have utilized Weight as a case study. By the time you reach the end of this article, you must be ready to develop new habits and stop bad ones. 

The major questions that should never leave your mind if you want to build a new habit are; How can I make it obvious, attractive, easy, and  satisfying. For breaking bad ones? How can it make it invisible, unattractive, hard and unsatisfying. Have you ever tried breaking a bad habit and what was your experience? Share in the comment section below.