Are You A Habit Rebel?

[This is Excerpt #1 of my book, How To Stop A Bad Habit, due out in 2020. Any and all comments and feedback welcome!]

Have you tried to change a bad habit?  Only to fail over and over and over again?

I sure have.

But what if the problem isn’t us?  What if the problem is Conventional Wisdom?

I always thought I was the problem–that if I just tried again harder, following all of Conventional Wisdom’s rules, I would eventually succeed.

I spent decades doing that.  But all I got was failure. And for one habit in particular, all I got was weighing 250 pounds and well on my way to weighing even more.

But then I got hooked on learning all I could about how the brain works, including neuroscience, behavior change and habit design.  

And I took all that knowledge and…

Massively rebelled against all that Conventional Wisdom.

What I’d learned taught me that if it weren’t easy, effortless and fun for me to stop a bad habit, then when a big stress came along (and face it, it always does) I’d start doing it again.  

Then I’d freak out and mercilessly beat myself up for blowing it, yelling at myself over and over, “You blew it, you idiot! Don’t do that!!”

I had to figure out a better way. 

This book is about that better way.

But it’s not a prescription for what you should do.

First of all, this approach is decidedly not a “program.”  I’m  not here to tell you what you should do. 

Instead, on my website (and in the topic-specific workbooks that follow this book) I share techniques that worked for me that you might want to experiment with.  Maybe some will work for you. Others won’t.  

I share them as potential catalysts to help you generate new thinking and ideas that work specifically for you.  

Your ideas may not be at all like mine. But mine can be catalysts to yours. 

NOTE:  This is a foundational book about my approach.  It works with any habit you want to stop. And for new ones you want to replace it with.

All of this works whether the bad habit you want to stop is procrastination or a messy living space or exercise or finances, all the way up to–and including–weight loss.

Betsy Burroughs