Now, we know that not seeing the impact of your efforts can be dispiriting. You'll only see the results of your habits after a while. You've probably worked out the main insight here: it's that small habits can have a surprisingly powerful impact on your life – and you won't necessarily see this impact happening in real-time. Go jogging for 20 minutes every day, and you'll eventually be leaner and fitter, even though you won't notice the change happening. Eat pizza every day, and you will likely have gained considerable weight after a year. If you eat a family-size pizza for dinner, it won't make you overweight overnight.īut if we repeat these small behaviors day after day, our choices compound into major results. If you are out of shape today, and go for a 20-minute jog, you'll still be out of shape tomorrow.

Small changes leave a negligible immediate impact. It's because – just like the confused pilot – we don't notice tiny changes in our lives. At the end of their journey, the confused passengers – and even more confused pilot – would find themselves landing in Washington DC, not New York City. The plane's nose shifts slightly to one side, and no one – not the pilot, not the passengers – notices anything.īut over the journey across the United States, the impact of this slight change would be considerable. He only changes it by 3.5 degrees – which is nearly nothing, just a few feet.

But now imagine that, not long after takeoff, the pilot accidentally changes the flight path slightly. The pilot enters all the correct information into the plane's computer, and the plane takes off heading in the right direction. The plane's destination is New York City.

To kick things off, I want you to imagine a plane preparing to take off from Los Angeles.

Atomic habits full audiobook