Description
Habits is your practical, guide to understanding and harnessing the power of positive habits and routines that support your health and wellbeing—while breaking free from the negative ones that hold you back.
The book starts by explaining the concept of ‘foundational habits’—core routines or behaviours that create a strong base for overall wellbeing and make it easier to build and maintain other positive habits related to your physical and mental health.
It then moves on to give clear explanations of concepts like the power of small changes, habit chains, and habit stacking—practical strategies that help you build positive new habits and routines one manageable step at a time.
Habits also helps you tackle common bad habits like spending too much time in front of screens, or constantly checking emails and messages, mindless eating or snacking, smoking or vaping, impulse shopping, poor sleep routines. You’ll learn how to identify and address these behaviors so you can make lasting changes that truly enhance your life.
Included in the book are Habit Templates that you can complete to help you:
- Clarify your target habit by pinpointing exactly what you want to do
- Decide when, where, and how you’ll do your new habit each day
- Pair your new habit with one you already do automatically
- Arrange your environment to remind you to follow through
- Enjoy a meaningful, reinforcing reward from your new habit
- Reframe your new habit from “what you do” to “who you are”—seeing yourself as a person who values health, learning, or connection
Habits is an essential read for anyone who’s tired of slipping into unhealthy habits and routines and is ready to start making meaningful, sustainable changes. Whether you want to get more exercise, eat better, sleep well, or simply live life with more intention, this book offers relatable examples and practical steps to help you create habits that support you to be your best self.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part One: Understanding Habits and the Foundations of Change 9
1 What Is a Habit? 11
2 Strong Foundations for Health and Wellbeing 29
3 Making Change Feel Possible 39
Part Two: The Practice of Habit Change: Turning Intentions into Action 49
4 Start Small to Grow Big 51
5 The Power of Habit Chains 67
6 Make Your Environment Work for You 81
7 Enjoyment and Rewards 91
8 Identity, Habits, and the People Who Influence Them 109
9 Reflect and Adjust 125
Part Three: Why Bad Habits Persist – and How to Change Them 139
10 Breaking Bad Habits 141
11 How to Break Bad Habits 157
12 Habits, Addictions and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder 183
Good Habit Action Plan 193
Action Plan to Break a Bad Habit 205
Index 217
