Influential Resource #1
Photo by Photos by Lanty on Unsplash
This is one of the most impactful habit books I have read. It helped me both personally and in my work. It was fun to read and informative.
How did I find this book?
I enjoyed the author's earlier book The Happiness Project, so I got this when it came out.
Impactful Information:
There is a lot of commonality among people in terms of the habits they want to change (eating, exercise, clutter, sleep), but because people are so different from one another, their individual approaches to habit change also need to differ.
The author creates a personality framework with four types (upholder, questioner, rebel, and obliger) based on how each type responds to outer expectations (boss, colleague, spouse) or inner expectations (self).
Determining what your type is enables you to customize solutions that will aid you in successfully pursuing the habits you want to bring in, or break.
The key to successful habit change is being honest with and understanding of yourself.
Use your self understanding to build systems in your life that will aid you in creating the habits you seek.
What I learned about myself:
That I am an upholder: I respond well to both inner and outer expectations.
Being an upholder I tend to be:
Self directed
Deadline oriented
Responsive to rules
Able to easily keep commitments (to myself and others)
It also means that I can be:
Overly rigid, especially around rules
Perfectionistic
Someone who holds overly high expectations of self and others
Inflexible
I loved:
The chapter titled “Nothing Stays in Vegas: Loophole Spotting”
This chapter is about the excuses we make for not doing the things that we KNOW are good for us, and that we SAY we want.
Examples of Loopholes (she has a list of ten ):
Tomorrow Loophole: Now doesn’t matter because we are going to follow good habits tomorrow.
Lack of Control Loophole: I travel all the time: it’s too hot; my kids take up all my time.
Why you may find this book helpful:
If you are someone who struggles to build the habits you want this is the book for you. After you read it and take the personality framework quiz contained in the book, you will understand yourself better, and probably others as well. The author provides many examples, strategies and tips to help the reader gain clarity.
Additional Resources: gretchenrubin.com
