Challenge Book #1: Better Than Before

Because this was my first week on my 28-Day Challenge, I decided that it made sense to read a book about habits. It tied in perfectly to my goal here. It's not that I am negating the idea of habits in general, instead I am trying to rid myself of the bad habits and create good ones. The book, Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin, is just about that.

A little background on Rubin: she's a happiness researcher, blogger, mother and all around just a pretty amazing person. Her research is all about trying to better your life and create something that is meaningful in a good way. This book in particular, focuses on habit formation. She starts by explaining what habits are (good vs. bad) and how you need to decide for yourself what habits you want to rid yourself of and create. She also explains how personality plays such a big role in habit formation and suggests that anyone is capable of creating habits, as long as they know what strategies can work for them.

I truly believe this is a great book for anyone because it is so informational and inspirational. It has really opened my eyes to my own personality and how it affects my habit formation. I was also able to set aside some of the things that bothered me about myself because Rubin was able to explain things in such a way that didn't make it seem like such a bad thing. For example, I thrive off extrinsic motivation. I am an Obliger and do things because something outside of myself is holding me accountable. This blog being the prime example. In the past that really bothered me, but it's totally okay as long as I embrace that that is who I am!

I hope you get the chance to read this book -- it's truly great! Also, look out for a full book overview in the future.