Laws of Behavior Change

The Four Laws of Behavior Change is from James Clear’s Atomic Habits. These laws form a sequential loop that helps to make new behaviors more likely to start, stick, and repeat.

Atomic Habits offers practical, science-backed strategies for building good habits and breaking bad ones through small, compounding changes.

Habits form through a four-step loop: cue (trigger), craving (motivation), response (action), reward (satisfaction). Habits can be optimized or inverted to build good habits or break bad ones

Law 1: Make it Obvious (Cue) triggers awareness by designing visible prompts in your environment or routines. This starts the cycle, as unnoticed cues lead to no action.

Law 2: Make it Attractive (Craving) builds motivation by linking the behavior to dopamine-boosting anticipation. It amplifies the cue’s pull, turning notice into desire.

Law 3: Make it Easy (Response) lowers friction so the action flows naturally from craving. This ensures the craving leads to actual performance, preventing drop-off.

Law 4: Make it Satisfying (Reward) reinforces the loop with immediate positive feedback, teaching your brain the behavior is worth repeating next time the cue appears.

To build good habits, make it easy, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying.

To beak bad habits, make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult and make it unsatisfying.

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