How small changes build bigger lives in our communities

When people ask me why James Clear’s Atomic Habits has become a global phenomenon, I often remind them: behind every bestseller lies a deeper cultural hunger. For Clear’s book, hunger is about productivity, discipline, efficiency, and belonging. Communities like ours, navigating histories of displacement, racism, and resilience, know better than most that survival is built on daily practices. That is why Atomic Habits may hold the blueprint for how we move from surviving to thriving, together.

Many of us carry unspoken exhaustion. The pressure to do more with less: less time, less access, less societal recognition. This breeds cycles of burnout. We tell ourselves that change must be massive to matter. Buy a house. Get a promotion. Lose thirty pounds. The enormity of those goals scares us into stillness, and when we don’t succeed, we internalize failure as personal rather than systemic. What the author of Atomic Habits, James Clear does, gently, but firmly, is dismantle this myth of “overnight change.”

He reminds us that the habits we build (incremental, almost invisible) shape the arc of our lives. This reframing is powerful for racialized communities who often face limited external rewards. Change, James argues, is an identity we practice daily. That reminder alone is psychological liberation.

Why do small actions matter so much? Neuroscience offers a clue. Our intuitive brain, sitting in the limbic system, craves immediate rewards and feelings of progress. Huge goals overwhelm this instinctive system, convincing us that change is impossible. Stacking micro-habits: five minutes of reading, two extra glasses of water, one honest check-in with a loved one, tricks the brain into recognizing consistent victories. Momentum builds. Self-belief grows.

Here lies the deeper lesson for our community: systems of oppression thrive on convincing us that incremental work is futile. Generational poverty won’t end. Racism is permanent. Careers have ceilings, but if oppression is systemic, why shouldn’t resistance be systemic too? Why shouldn’t our daily commitments to: self, family, and community compound just as powerfully as negative cycles have before?

Consider the proverb we often repeat, “Little by little, birds build their nest.” This is, in essence, Atomic Habits wrapped in ancestral wisdom. Our foremothers and forefathers understood that survival in hostile environments meant honouring the quiet disciplines: planting seeds, saving scraps, teaching children songs of freedom. James may frame the science, but we already carry the tradition. Reading this book feels less like discovering something new and more like remembering what our communities have always known.

James Clear speaks to a universal audience, but it is up to us to contextualize his message. We may not resonate with his examples of sports coaches, or Fortune 500 executives, but the principles apply seamlessly to a mother trying to model consistency for her children, to a young brother struggling to build financial discipline, to a cultural curator preserving heritage through daily creative practice. In other words, Atomic Habits is about noticing how much of the system is already within us and choosing daily to water it.

Real transformation rarely comes in grand gestures; it begins in the smallest commitments we choose to honour daily. Whether that means thirty minutes of walking before dawn, journaling after work, budgeting with honesty, or teaching our children the habit of gratitude, each practice accumulates interest. The book becomes a personal tool, and a community strategy. If enough of us commit to these micro-shifts, the compounded effect becomes cultural change.

So, why should Atomic Habits matter to us now? While racism confines, systems deplete, and histories weigh heavy, our habits remain ours, and when we claim them, we reclaim the story of our lives.

If you have ever felt stuck between survival and vision, I urge you to pick up Atomic Habits. Begin with one small shift. Share it within your family circle. Teach it to a neighbour. Watch as the ripple grows.

Change begins in the smallest habit you choose today.