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Monday, August 10, 2015

Book Review: Better Than Before

I've been following Gretchen Rubin's blog for a while, and finally bit the bullet and bought her latest book Better Than Before after one commenter on our Instagram page recommended it. And then I read it in one weekend.



The book is about habits, which I'm particularly interested in, obvi since I have a whole Instragram account dedicated to health and fitness.

Gretchen categorizes people into four categories: Upholders, Questioners, Rebels, and Obligers. I thought I was an Obliger through most of the book, but when I looked through her questions at the end, I realized I'm actually a Questioner. (Meanwhile there was never any doubt that my husband is a Questioner. If you ask our family to do something, there are many questions...). For each category she lists different strategies for how you can motivate yourself to establish the habits you would like to have in your life.

But the part that had me jumping up and down was her chapter about Moderators vs. Abstainers. It was like this huge life secret that I'd known instinctively but had never seen validated in print before. She's talked about it a little on her blog, and I'd mentioned that her, but the book had some great points. I practically howled YEEAAAHSSS when she casually mentioned that she's never met a nutritionist who wasn't a moderator.

There's plenty for moderators too. What I liked is that she approaches habits by addressing what works for your type of personality--so many time-management/self help/organizational books have a more stringent, "this is what (one type of) successful people do, so do it this way."

Anyway, the abstainer thing may just have changed my life. More on that later.




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