“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” – James Clear
What if I told you that the future of your startup, your dream of building something impactful, doesn’t hinge on monumental breakthroughs or extraordinary strokes of genius? Instead, it rests on the tiniest actions you take every single day—the habits you form, the systems you build, and the identity you adopt as a founder.
That’s the magic of James Clear’s Atomic Habits. It’s not just a book; it’s a playbook for life—and especially for entrepreneurship. In the following lines, I’ll walk you through the core lessons of this transformative book and translate them into practical insights for startup founders like you. Let’s dive in.
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NOTE: RCY Labs has curated a list of 52 books for Founders (2025 Edition) who care about business profitability AND impact. Don't have time to read all 52 books? We've got you! We'll read them for you, and give you the summaries, audio casts, outlines, and frameworks to apply to your business ... all FREE in the Founders' Lab Community (on Slack). Join here.
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1% Better Every Day
Clear opens with a powerful concept: Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The idea is simple but profound—getting just 1% better every day may feel insignificant, but over time, it’s revolutionary.
Take the story of the British Cycling team. For decades, they were underperformers—until their coach, Dave Brailsford, introduced a philosophy of marginal gains. From optimizing seat comfort to tweaking the shade of white paint on their vans to detect dirt and reduce wear on bikes, they improved everything by just 1%. Within five years, British Cycling dominated the Olympics and won the Tour de France.
As founders, we often dream of exponential growth. But growth isn’t about one grand leap; it’s about a thousand tiny steps. What’s your 1% improvement today? Is it sending that follow-up email? Simplifying your onboarding process? Taking a five-minute meditation break to center yourself before a pitch?
Rachel's Take: Small Wins, Big Impact
For me, this idea of incremental progress has been life-changing. I’ve often found myself overwhelmed by the sheer scope of what I want to achieve—both in my business and in my personal life. But when I focus on doing one thing well each day—whether it’s crafting a better client proposal or simply listening more intently to my team—I see those small victories compound into something greater. Like when I started introducing daily five-minute reflection moments with my team. It began as a small practice, but over time, it became a cultural touchstone that strengthened trust and clarity across the board.
The Habit Loop: Understanding Your Behaviors
Clear explains that every habit follows a predictable loop: cue, craving, response, reward. This loop is the DNA of behavior change. To create good habits or break bad ones, you need to understand and tweak each stage.
For example, let’s say you’re struggling with procrastination. The cue might be an overwhelming task; the craving is for relief from stress. Your response? Scrolling social media. The reward? A temporary dopamine hit.
Flip the script. Break tasks into bite-sized pieces to reduce overwhelm (make it easy), and reward yourself for small wins (make it satisfying). Founders often get stuck in analysis paralysis or decision fatigue. By redesigning your habit loop, you can move past those blocks with ease.
Rachel's Take: Turning Daunting into Doable
Personally, I remember a time when writing client SOWs (Statements of Work) felt daunting. My cue was a pile of open projects waiting for detailed scopes, and my craving was to escape the task entirely. But instead of avoiding it, I created a habit loop: I’d outline just one section of the SOW (cue), pair it with a cup of my favorite tea (craving), and reward myself with five minutes of creative reading when I finished (reward). It worked—I started getting into the flow and knocking out tasks with far less resistance.
The Four Laws of Behavior Change
James Clear offers a powerful framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Let’s apply the Four Laws directly to startup life:
1. Make It Obvious
Want to improve team communication? Schedule a daily stand-up meeting at the same time every morning. The consistency creates a cue, turning communication into a habit for your team.
Clear shares the story of a woman who wanted to drink more water, so she placed water bottles throughout her house. For founders, this could mean putting visual reminders for goals in your workspace—a sticky note with your company’s mission on your laptop, or a checklist for daily priorities on your desk.
Rachel's Take: Visual Reminders for Connection
For me, making habits obvious has meant turning abstract goals into visible actions. When I decided to focus on building a deeper connection with my clients, I started using a small trick: I placed a stack of handwritten thank-you cards on my desk. Every Friday, seeing those cards reminded me to reflect on who I’d worked with that week and send a personal note of gratitude. It’s amazing how such a simple habit strengthened relationships and made our partnerships feel more human.
2. Make It Attractive
Ever heard of temptation bundling? Pair something you need to do with something you enjoy. For instance, I know a founder who only allowed himself to listen to his favorite podcast while working out. For startups, think about bundling mundane tasks with celebrations. Turn end-of-week reports into a moment of reflection with a team happy hour.
Rachel's Take: Making Work Joyful
For me, this law came into play when I was struggling to stay consistent with writing blog content—something I value but don’t always find inspiring in the moment. I started bundling the task with an inspiring playlist. Now, whenever I write, I’m transported to a creative headspace, and it’s become something I look forward to rather than dread.
3. Make It Easy
The simpler the action, the more likely you are to do it. Clear’s Two-Minute Rule is gold: reduce any habit to its smallest actionable step. Want to start a weekly email newsletter? Open a blank draft and write the subject line. The hardest part is starting.
Rachel's Take: Small Starts, Big Results
I’ve applied this principle to client outreach. Instead of setting a daunting goal like “book three new clients this week,” I focus on the smallest action: sending one thoughtful email a day. By removing the pressure and just starting, I’ve found the momentum to achieve much bigger results over time.
4. Make It Satisfying
Humans crave rewards. Create a sense of accomplishment by tracking progress. Whether it’s a shared dashboard showing team milestones or marking off a to-do list, visualizing your wins reinforces the habit loop.
Rachel's Take: Celebrating Wins
One habit that’s become deeply satisfying for me is tracking client success stories. I keep a notebook where I jot down one meaningful outcome we’ve achieved for a client each week. Not only does it reinforce the value of our work, but it’s a reminder to celebrate progress—something we don’t do often enough as founders.
Identity-Based Habits: Becoming the Founder You Aspire to Be
Here’s where Atomic Habits becomes truly transformational: lasting change doesn’t come from what you do—it comes from who you believe you are.
Clear writes, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become.” So instead of saying, “I want to grow my business,” start saying, “I am the kind of founder who builds scalable, sustainable systems.”
A memorable example from the book involves a man who quit smoking by reframing his identity. Instead of saying, “I’m trying to quit,” he said, “I’m not a smoker.” Over time, his actions aligned with this identity, and the habit stuck.
As founders, you’re not just building a company; you’re building an identity. Who do you want to be—a resilient leader? A servant of your team? A visionary innovator? Let your habits reflect that identity.
Rachel's Take: Empowering Through Action
For me, one identity shift came when I realized I wanted to be seen as someone who empowers others. This led me to embrace teaching moments in my business, whether through mentoring team members or sharing lessons learned with other founders. Every small action that reinforced this identity—even as simple as answering a mentee’s question thoughtfully—felt like a vote for the leader I wanted to become.
Breaking Bad Habits: Inversion of the Four Laws
Bad habits? They’re the silent killers of progress. Clear’s Four Laws work in reverse to break them:
- Make It Invisible: Eliminate cues. If late-night doomscrolling kills your morning productivity, keep your phone in another room overnight.
- Make It Unattractive: Reframe the habit. Imagine the long-term cost of skipping your financial reports.
- Make It Difficult: Add friction. If you’re spending too much on delivery food, delete the app and force yourself to order online through a desktop.
- Make It Unsatisfying: Add accountability. Publicly commit to a goal with a peer or mentor.
Rachel's Take: Learning to Say No
One bad habit I had to overcome was saying yes to too many projects. It stemmed from a fear of missing out, but it led to stretched resources and diluted focus. To combat this, I added friction to the decision-making process: before saying yes, I’d write down how the project aligned with my core business goals. That pause often revealed when a “no” was the better answer.
The Goldilocks Rule: Staying Motivated
Even with great habits, motivation can wane. Clear’s Goldilocks Rule offers a solution: stay in the sweet spot of challenge—not too hard, not too easy.
As a founder, this might mean setting ambitious but achievable goals. Stretch yourself just enough to keep momentum, but not so much that burnout sets in. Remember, consistency beats intensity.
Rachel's Take: Stretching for Growth
I’ve seen this rule play out in my own journey. When we launched new services at RCY Labs, we didn’t aim for perfection on day one. Instead, we set a series of incremental improvements with each client engagement, keeping us motivated and always in that productive growth zone.
Final Thoughts: Build Systems, Not Just Goals
One of the most profound lessons in Atomic Habits is this: You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.
As founders, we’re conditioned to chase goals—revenue targets, customer acquisition numbers, product launches. But those goals are just outcomes. The real game is in the systems you create to achieve them.
Ask yourself: Are your daily habits and systems designed to support the founder and company you want to be? If not, what’s one small change you can make today? After all, success isn’t a giant leap. It’s a series of tiny, intentional steps—your atomic habits.
Take this wisdom and run with it. Implement one habit. Then another. And before you know it, you’ll not only be a better founder—you’ll be a better you.
What’s your first small step?
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RCY Labs has curated a list of 52 books for Founders (2025 Edition) who care about business profitability AND impact. Don't have time to read all 52 books? We've got you! We'll read them for you, and give you the summaries, audio casts, outlines, and frameworks to apply to your business ... all FREE in the Founders' Lab Community (on Slack). Join here.
