Start Small, End Big: Atomic Habits that Fuel Myopia Management

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CooperVision® Myopia Experts share simple habit rethinks that can recharge your myopia success rates.

April 13, 2026

We all have home and work habits that become embedded in our day-to-day: Hit the snooze button. Skip the run. Grab the coffee. Drive to work. Review the schedule. Diagnose the condition. Educate the family. Prescribe a myopia treatment. Repeat.

As an ECP, your clinical foundations may be solid yet still miss the mark in achieving optimal results; or maybe they’re falling short entirely.

If you’re hoping for better long-term results, small, daily habit changes may be the answer.

Author James Clear’s best-selling novel, Atomic Habits, offers a practical guide on how to change habits and get 1% better every day.¹

“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis,” the author writes.²

Using a framework called the Four Laws of Behavior Change, Atomic Habits outlines a simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones.

Three Key lessons in the book²

1. Small habits make a big difference. Improving 1% isn’t particularly notable, but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. Clear suggests that if you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1% worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. Focus on getting 1% better every day, Clear says.
2. Don’t set goals. Focus on your system instead. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system, Clear emphasizes.
3. Build identity-based habits. The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first. Your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity. What you do now is a mirror image of the type of person you believe that you are.

 Clear offers these four approaches to creating good habits:

• Make it obvious
• Make it attractive
• Make it easy
• Make it satisfying

Translating to Myopia Management

By now, you may be asking yourself, this all sounds interesting, but how do atomic habits translate to myopia management? Just ask the experts. Members of the CooperVision® Myopia Management Sales team provide real-world insight and fresh perspectives on how small, daily habit changes at your practice can help elevate your myopia management service.

 

	Cheryl Oberlee: East Regional Sales Manager, CooperVision  Talent is overrated; focus on your unique strengths  If your unique strength is making people seen and heard, consistent practice will refine that human connection: “Nearsightedness is where the eye is stretching too long, too fast, and getting weaker as this happens. My job is to protect your daughter’s vision from getting worse as she grows.” Build upon the foundation of your initial successes.
	Mark Phelps: Myopia Account Executive, CooperVision  The Two-Minute Rule helps build new habits  Treating every child with myopia may seem daunting or overwhelming. Start small. Start with one. At the start of each day, spend two minutes identifying patients with/or at risk for myopia progression—it’s likely most children age 4 to 16 on your schedule that day! Ask yourself why the after-school time slots have fewer elementary and middle school patients than you might expect. Schedule every child and grandchild of your adult patients.
	Tera Barrata: Myopia Account Executive, CooperVision  Never miss twice to maintain momentum  Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.  Debrief in the moment or at the end of the day, any explicit or perceived reasons from parents to not start treating myopia today or in two weeks when they pick up their glasses.   Focus on getting back on track for the next MiSight® 1 day* candidate rather than beating yourself up. You may hear four, “No, not sure, I’ll get back to you,” for every one, “Yes, how do I help my child?” No is not a failure, it’s a chance to learn.  Parents get to say no. Our job is to stay curious, not controlling.  Keep track of parent conversations and begin to recognize patterns as an opportunity to course correct.
	Jessica Koss: Myopia Account Executive, CooperVision.  Habit-stacking leverages existing behaviors  Countless optometrists already prescribe single vision daily disposables in elementary school aged children and older. Parents know the benefits. Stack the myopia control benefits on top of the clear vision benefits.* Also stack auto-refraction by giving each and every parent some simple reading material about the importance of myopia control—these always go together. Better yet, the parent holding that reading material is the visual cue to “make it obvious” for the doctor to then be the bearer of good news with myopia control treatment.

 

Start Making Small Habit Changes Today

Are you feeling stuck in a rut with your myopia management program? As Clear says, it doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success.1 Follow these cues from our myopia sales team, and you’ll be on the right path to achieve this end goal, one small positive habit change at a time.

 

*Indications for use: MiSight® 1 day (omafilcon A) soft (hydrophilic) contact lenses for daily wear are indicated for the correction of myopic ametropia and for slowing the progression of myopia in children with non-diseased eyes, who at the initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age and have a refraction of -0.75 to -4.00 diopters (spherical equivalent) with ≤ 0.75 diopters of astigmatism. The lens is to be discarded after each removal.

 

References

1. Clear, James. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery, 2018.
2. Clear, J. Atomic Habits Summary. https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits-summary.

 

 

 

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This article was sponsored by CooperVision.