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This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hey gang, today we're going to talk about something that research shows can help you perform better at work, get along better with

your romantic partner, more easily form healthy habits, and calm you down when you're

anxious.

What is this that I'm talking about?

It's rituals.

To the extent that I ever really thought about it,

I've personally never been a huge fan of rituals,

many of the rituals I observed in religious settings, left me cold personally, and I should say that my guest today, the Harvard researcher Michael Norton, actually had similar reservations.

But Michael's work shows that all of us should

actually be taking rituals seriously. Michael is a professor of business

administration at the Harvard Business School and his new book is called The Ritual Effect.

We talk about the difference between habits and rituals, how rituals, as I mentioned earlier,

can actually help us in forming healthy habits, the impact of group rituals, the perils of having a weak

handshake, how to introduce rituals into your workplace without falling back on annoying

cliches like trust falls, how to transform your everyday activities into rituals, how rituals

can inject meaning and a little bit of magic into your life, how to infuse rituals into your

relationships, and how rituals can be used maliciously.

We'll get started with Michael Norton right after this.

But first some BSP, as you've heard me say before, the hardest part of personal growth, self-improvement,

spiritual development, whatever you want to call it.

...