8 Life-Changing Books About Habits (You Can Listen to While Folding Laundry)
Updated: Jun 16
Self-discovery can be a lonely journey. Even people who support you unconditionally will zone out from time-to-time scrolling Tik Tok while listening to you talk about the goals you want to set for yourself and as a family in 2022. But do not let that discourage you from upgrading your life in whatever way you are feeling called to. Trust those instincts.
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Each year Nicole and I have worked together we both make annual commitments to reading more books as one of our new year intentions. Not only do we both embrace our nerdy side by soaking in research, data, and fact-checking but we also want to stay relevant on what clients may be reading so we can better understand who or what is influencing your perception of your health and your habits.
An Amazon search for "books about habits" will result in over 10,000 published books from a wide variety of departments. But what we've come to learn is that a large percentage of these books only mention habits as a chapter or even just a single recommendation in a much larger message about overcoming anxiety, embracing a growth mindset, or being a better leader.
We care ensure you that the authors below are fixated on how habits can change lives.
Nicole and I read, and in some cases reread, each of these books in 2021.
Now again with the transparency, we both mainly listened to these books on Audible. Between the amount of time we both spend in the car, on a treadmill, or doing house chores, we consumed these books in smaller increments because that was how we could fit it in. Sure both of us would prefer to be sitting down in front of a fire or at the beach flipping the pages of a hardcopy but that's not our life right now.
We bet many of you would also "read" more too if reading could fit it into your daily life instead of forcing you to stop your life. It's a variation on self-care that you should not be ashamed about. Embrace it - don't resist it.
When Charles Duhigg talks about the habit loop in the Power of Habits, he talks about the power of creating a cue that triggers a routine to receive a predetermined reward. So if you turned listening to the life changing authors listed above as your reward, you could create the routine of using home-care or self-care habits as your cue!
Think of the motivation you could stir up, and all you could learn about your own habits, if you rewarded yourself by listening to these 8 incredible authors when you are:
completing your morning or evening skincare routines,
completing meal prep for the week,
walking or stretching,
organizing mail, receipts, papers, etc., or
cleaning or just tidying up your home, office, or car(s).
Maybe some of you are even working on a "hands free habit" and desire a routine that literally slows you down to do nothing with your hands for 10 or 20 minutes a day. BRAVO! Listening to one these authors on Audible is a reward we would all applaud you for.
Bottomline, do not let the mean girl taking up space in your mind start whispering messages of self-doubt or impostor syndrome when you see your family scrolling their phones while you are talking about your desires for a more habitized life. Just because they aren't ready to transform their life doesn't mean you should stop transforming yours.
Stay focused, shake it off, and keeping listening to what's possible for you while you're folding the laundry friend.
