Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits--to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin (AFFILIATE LINK) was assigned reading for my Nutritional Therapy Practitioner program through the Nutritional Therapy Association.
I'm familiar with Gretchen Rubin and her Four Tendencies, but I hadn't read this one yet. I'm so glad I did. This book is fantastic!
Better Than Before Synopsis
Most of us have a habit we’d like to change, and there’s no shortage of expert advice. But as we all know from tough experience, no magic, one-size-fits-all solution exists. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.
In Better Than Before, acclaimed writer Gretchen Rubin identifies every approach that actually works. She presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits—and to change them for good.
Infused with Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research, and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, Better Than Before explains the (sometimes counterintuitive) core principles of habit formation and answers the most perplexing questions about habits:
• Why do we find it tough to create a habit for something we love to do?
• How can we keep our healthy habits when we’re surrounded by temptations?
• How can we help someone else change a habit?
Rubin reveals the true secret to habit change: first, we must know ourselves. When we shape our habits to suit ourselves, we can find success—even if we’ve failed before.
Whether you want to eat more healthfully, stop checking devices, or finish a project, the invaluable ideas in Better Than Before will start you working on your own habits—even before you’ve finished the book.
My Review
This book is a fantastic manual for habit change. If you're looking to make substantial changes in your life, this book is a must-read.
The insights on habit change in this book are incredible...
Having been able to successfully change my life to heal my body from autoimmunity and cancer, this book actually gave me insights as to why I was able to make these changes and why it's more difficult for me to make changes now that I've had some time away from that period of my life.
I found insights as to why I've struggled to make lasting change in the past. I now know why I've had a hard time developing new habits and changing existing habits in the past. This book clearly laid out steps that I could take to be successful going forward.
I also recognized tools and strategies that I've actually used in the past and Rubin explained why they did or did not work, or why they only worked for a short time.
If you're looking to make changes, this book is a must read!
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