Gretchen Rubin: How To Build Habits That Change Lives
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2015
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Everything you've been told about building and breaking habits may well be wrong. Or, at the very least, missing a critical middle step.
In this week's episode, we bust myths and share how to do it right (hint, there are 4 different approaches and if you choose wrong, you will fail).
Creating good habits is one of the master keys for living a good life. But, it's hard. Really hard. And, it turns out, the reason it's so hard may not be your fault. It may, in fact, be that you've been given misinformation.
According to mega NYT bestselling author of The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin, in her new book, Better Than Before, there's been a missing piece in the habit puzzle, and she's got the answer.
In this fast-paced, incredibly-revealing conversation, Rubin lays bare they myth of the one-method-for-all-people approach to habits. To create or change a habit, she offers, you first need to understand which of four key personality types you are. Then, tailor your approach to your specific personality needs.
We dive into each type, how to figure which you are and how that changes the way you'll need to build or change your habits. By the end of this episode, you will definitely be interested in knowing which you are, so I've linked the online personality typing tool she's created below to figure out yours.
Some questions I ask:
- What are your thoughts on how The Happiness Project has evolved into a brand?
- Is the audience that loves The Happiness Project who you thought it would be?
- What's the difference between a behavior and a habit and why does it matter to turn one into the other?
- What is the role of forming habits in living a good life?
Links we mention:
Follow Gretchen:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the things people often say is like, make healthy choices. |
| 0:07.0 | And I'm like, don't make healthy choices. |
| 0:09.1 | Make one healthy choice. |
| 0:10.5 | And then stop choosing. |
| 0:12.1 | Because every time you choose, you run the risk that you're going to choose wrong. |
| 0:17.1 | One of the most challenging things to do is to take a behavior that you really want to |
| 0:21.7 | do. |
| 0:22.7 | Maybe it's exercise, maybe it's working out, maybe it's waking up early and turn it into something |
| 0:28.6 | that becomes a habit that where it's automatic. |
| 0:31.1 | You don't think about it. |
| 0:32.1 | You just do it. |
| 0:34.3 | When you can do that, it actually changes the way that we function in a world. |
| 0:38.1 | The changes the way that our brain operates. |
| 0:40.4 | And a lot of research shows that being able to create really positive constructive habits |
| 0:46.2 | can lead to a happier and more fulfilled, better life. |
| 0:49.9 | That in fact is what triggered the exploration of habit for this week's guest, Gretchen |
| 0:55.1 | Ruben, who you guys very likely know as the founder of the Happiness Project blog and the |
| 0:59.7 | author of the mega best-selling book, The Happiness Project, and its follow-up, Happy |
| 1:04.0 | Or at Home. |
| 1:05.0 | Today, we're going to dive into how she became interested in habit and explore some pretty |
| 1:10.3 | fascinating new archetypes that she developed for her new book, Better Than Before. |
| 1:16.8 | I'm Jonathan Fields. |
... |
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