I read Atomic Habits to transform my life. After applying its principles, I found great personal success within three months' time. I went from rarely cooking at home to consistently cooking almost every day. I went from not having an exercise routine to exercising consistently three times a week. Ultimately, in contrast to last year (when I went to the hospital almost every month), I became much healthier.
For the most part, I really only kept one law of behavior change in mind at the beginning: Make it EASY
Yes, at first, it may feel like cheating or cutting yourself short. But perfectionists tend to stop when something is not "up to their expectations," whether that's performance, conditions, or whatever. For me, years of trying to be a perfectionist had convinced me that doing something, even if it isn't perfect for now, is better than doing nothing.
The point isn't to do it perfectly. The point is to show up. (a version of this quote is in the book somewhere). To start, I made consistency my goal, not performance.
I started with trying to eat breakfast regularly (I used to skip breakfast). What did I cook? Just eggs. My breakfasts were eggs, fruit, and some carbs (rice or bread). All I had to do was fry a couple eggs for five minutes (which I (thankfully) already knew how to do). This was the starting point -- now I cook almost every day, learning a few new recipes every month to improve my diet further.
On your habit-building journey, chances are, you'll probably end up applying all four laws (Make it Obvious, Make it Attractive, Make it Easy, Make it Satisfying) anyway, unknowingly or eventually (because that's how habits are made). But for me, focusing on "Making it EASY" has relieved me of the biggest obstacle that caused many past habit-building failures: perfectionism. You don't need to perfect the habit-building "technique" to build one.
Once you take action, you can identify and fix your mistakes from there.
My first time posting on this thread! Hope this resonates with somebody.