It’s time for the next installment of  “Happier with Gretchen Rubin.”

Update

I hold Elizabeth accountable for pondering her YA novel.

Try This at Home

Act the way you want to feel. Want to know all my Twelve Personal Commandments? Look here.

Better Than Before Habit Strategy

We’re working our way through the twenty-one strategies for habit change that I discuss in Better Than Before. In this episode, we talk about the Strategy of Abstaining (which we’ve talk about before, for instance, in back episode 2, but we keep hearing from listeners about it).

Listener Question

“What’s the line between freeing yourself from an obligation that’s become counter-productive versus quitting something prematurely, that you ought to stick with?”

Elizabeth’s Demerit

Elizabeth hasn’t had her hair cut and colored for months.

Gretchen’s Gold Star

In episode 41, I gave myself a demerit for not going to the gym. This time, I get a gold star for switching gyms; I used the Strategy of Convenience to join a gym closer to my apartment, and I have in fact started to go to the gym again.