Better Than Before explores strategies to conquer bad habits and maintain good ones by identifying personality types and understanding how habits form and stick.
Main Lessons
- Understand your personality type (Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, Rebel) to tailor habit-forming strategies.
- Use a calendar and monitor progress to make habits easier to maintain by reducing daily decision-making.
- Leverage life changes, like a new job or moving, as opportunities for starting new habits.
- Make good habits convenient and enjoyable to sustain them effortlessly.
- Introduce slight inconveniences to deter bad habits more effectively.
- Anticipate and reduce exposure to temptation to break bad habits.
- Avoid moral licensing; small allowances can reverse progress in maintaining habits.
- Utilize distraction techniques to weaken cravings or negative thoughts.
- Be cautious with rewards; they might undermine long-term habit formation.
- Practice pairing enjoyable activities with ones you want to pursue to increase commitment.
- Incorporate spontaneous treats to boost motivation without relying on rewards.
- Formulate ‘if-then’ plans to streamline decision-making and adhere to desired behaviors.
- Prepare ahead for new habits, increasing the likelihood of following through (e.g., lay out workout clothes).
