Want to Talk About Your Habits in a Group? It’s a Good Idea

Photo of Better Than Before in a Hudson New stand.

It’s been so satisfying to have Better Than Before out in the world at last. I must admit, I do look in every bookstore I pass, to see it on the shelves. I get a thrill every time. (I’ve also been known to sneak around putting copies of my books in more conspicuous places.)

And I was thrilled, yesterday, to hear that Better Than Before is still holding strong on the New York Times bestseller list. Yay! Thank you, readers.

It’s fascinating to me to hear how people are responding, now that there’s been time for people to have read the book — what ideas they’re finding most helpful or most surprising, and how they’re using the habit strategies themselves.

Please email me or post a comment here if you find a great way to apply one of the 21 strategies! I simply cannot hear enough examples. For instance, yesterday, I got an email from one reader who had leased a new car and then used the Strategy of the Clean Slate to break the habit of eating fast food during the commute home from work. In the new car, no fast food. So simple, so brilliant.

In particular, many people have told me that they’re discussing the book in a group.

For instance, people are discussing Better Than Before in book groups, groups at work, and in spirituality-based groups (Bible study groups, spirituality groups, and the like). And support groups—one group discussed it during a support group for weight-loss surgery patients.

So, if you’d like one of the discussion guides for these groups, click here to download the guides (scroll down).

I’m in four book groups myself, so it gives me special pleasure to hear that Better Than Before is being discussed by a book group. 

I’m also getting a lot of requests for the starter kit, from people who want to launch a Better Than Before habits group, where people work on their habits together.

No surprise, many of these requests come from Obligers, who now see that external accountability is the key to sticking to their good habits — they want to form the group that will give them that crucial accountability. Which is a great idea!

Some solutions — like hiring a coach, working with a trainer, or taking a class — work extremely well, but they carry a cost; starting a habits group is free. If you’d like the starter kit oyu can download it here.

If you’re reading the book in any kind of group, and your group would like signed bookplates to make the books feel more personal, request them here (I’m so sorry–I can offer this for U.S. and Canada only, because of mailing costs). Or request a bookplate for yourself, or a gift, if you want.

Unrelatedly, in a book signing line, someone asked me, “Do you really make your bed when you’re staying in a hotel? Even on the morning you’re checking out?”

Yup. I really do.

This is a good example of something from my Habits Manifesto: We’re not much different from other people, but those differences are very important. This hotel-bed-making habit, which seems natural and unexceptional to me, strike many people as deeply weird. As I’ve discovered. On my book tour, I’ve had many opportunities to make my hotel bed.

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