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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Hardcover – February 28, 2012

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD • This instant classic explores how we can change our lives by changing our habits.

“Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living.
The Power of Habit is an exception.”—Financial Times

A WALL STREET JOURNAL AND FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 
The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporterCharles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

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Popular Highlights in this book

From the Publisher

Change Your Habits, Change Your Life;power of habit;personal growth;business book;new year new you

Financial Times says, “Not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones.”

Wired says, “Absolutely fascinating.”;power of habit;new year new you;self help;personal growth book

The New York Times Book Review says, “A serious look at the science of habit formation.”

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A Q&A with Author Charles Duhigg

What sparked your interest in habits?
I first became interested in the science of habits eight years ago, as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad, when I heard about an army major conducting an experiment in a small town named Kufa.

The major had analyzed videotapes of riots and had found that violence was often preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza and, over the course of hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle.

When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: Could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Great Mosque of Kufa. It grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8 p.m., everyone was gone.

I asked the major how he had figured out that removing food vendors would change peoples' behavior.

The U.S. military, he told me, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history. “Understanding habits is the most important thing I’ve learned in the army,” he said. By the time I got back to the U.S., I was hooked on the topic.

How have your own habits changed as a result of writing this book?
Since starting work on this book, I've lost about 30 pounds, I run every other morning (I'm training for the NY Marathon later this year), and I'm much more productive. And the reason why is because I've learned to diagnose my habits, and how to change them.

Take, for instance, a bad habit I had of eating a cookie every afternoon. By learning how to analyze my habit, I figured out that the reason I walked to the cafeteria each day wasn't because I was craving a chocolate chip cookie. It was because I was craving socialization, the company of talking to my colleagues while munching. That was the habit's real reward. And the cue for my behavior - the trigger that caused me to automatically stand up and wander to the cafeteria, was a certain time of day.

So, I reconstructed the habit: now, at about 3:30 each day, I absentmindedly stand up from my desk, look around for someone to talk with, and then gossip for about 10 minutes. I don't even think about it at this point. It's automatic. It's a habit. I haven't had a cookie in six months.

What was the most surprising use of habits that you uncovered?
The most surprising thing I've learned is how companies use the science of habit formation to study - and influence - what we buy.

Take, for example, Target, the giant retailer. Target collects all kinds of data on every shopper it can, including whether you’re married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how much money you earn, if you've moved recently, the websites you visit. And with that information, it tries to diagnose each consumer’s unique, individual habits.

Why? Because Target knows that there are these certain moments when our habits become flexible. When we buy a new house, for instance, or get married or have a baby, our shopping habits are in flux. A well-timed coupon or advertisement can convince us to buy in a whole new way. But figuring out when someone is buying a house or getting married or having a baby is tough. And if you send the advertisement after the wedding or the baby arrives, it’s usually too late.

So Target studies our habits to see if they can predict major life events. And the company is very, very successful. Oftentimes, they know what is going on in someone's life better than that person's parents.

Review

“Sharp, provocative, and useful.”—Jim Collins

“Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living.
The Power of Habit is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good.”Financial Times

“Entertaining . . . enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . a serious look at the science of habit formation and change.”
The New York Times Book Review

“Cue: see cover. Routine: read book. Reward: fully comprehend the art of manipulation.”
Bloomberg Businessweek

“A fresh examination of how routine behaviors take hold and whether they are susceptible to change . . . The stories that Duhigg has knitted together are all fascinating in their own right, but take on an added dimension when wedded to his examination of habits.”
— Associated Press

“There’s been a lot of research over the past several years about how our habits shape us, and this work is beautifully described in the new book
The Power of Habit.”—David Brooks, The New York Times

“A first-rate book—based on an impressive mass of research, written in a lively style and providing just the right balance of intellectual seriousness with practical advice on how to break our bad habits.”
The Economist

“I have been spinning like a top since reading
The Power of Habit, New York Times journalist Charles Duhigg’s fascinating best-seller about how people, businesses and organizations develop the positive routines that make them productive—and happy.”The Washington Post

“An absolutely fascinating . . . book [that explores] a startling and sometimes dismaying collision between the increasingly sophisticated scientific understanding of habits—how they’re formed, how they can be disrupted and changed—and, among other things, companies’ efforts to use that knowledge to steer your habits and money their way.”
Wired

“If Duhigg is right about the nature of habits, which I think he is, then trying to
get rid of these bad habits won’t work. Instead, what is needed is to teach the managers to identify the cues that lead to these bad habits and rewards, and then learn alternative routines that lead to similar rewards, i.e. business and personal success.”Forbes

The Power of Habit is chock-full of fascinating anecdotes . . . how an early twentieth century adman turned Pepsodent into the first bestselling toothpaste by creating the habit of brushing daily, how a team of marketing mavens at Procter & Gamble rescued Febreze from the scrapheap of failed products by recognizing that a fresh smell was a fine reward for a cleaning task, how Michael Phelps’ coach instilled habits that made him an Olympic champion many times over, and how Tony Dungy turned the Indianapolis Colts into a Super Bowl–winning team.”Los Angeles Times

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; 1st edition (February 28, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400069289
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400069286
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1150L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.29 x 1.15 x 9.53 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 38,867 ratings

About the author

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Charles Duhigg
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My name is Charles Duhigg, and I'm a reporter for The New Yorker Magazine and the author of The Power of Habit, Smarter Faster Better, and Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection (coming out on February 20, 2024!)

While I worked at the New York Times, I won a Pulitzer Prize for a series about Apple named "The iEconomy". Before that, I wrote about the 2008 financial crisis, how companies take advantage of the elderly, and reported from Iraq. (For those and other articles, I won the National Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors' Medal, the National Academies' reporting award and other recognitions.)

But let’s be honest, you aren’t visiting this page so I can brag about series and awards. (Unless you’re my mom. Hi mom!)

I’m also a native of New Mexico. I studied history at Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. I now live in Santa Cruz, CA with my wife and two children and, before becoming a journalist, was a bike messenger in San Francisco for one terrifying day.

I would love to hear from you.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
38,867 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting, compelling, and revealing. They appreciate the great job of explaining habits from a fact-based point of view. Readers also mention the book is well-researched and has valuable exercises. Opinions are mixed on enjoyment, ease of use, and clarity. Some find it entertaining and engaging, while others say it's boring and has too much filler.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

2,546 customers mention "Readability"2,499 positive47 negative

Customers find the book interesting and compelling. They say it's approachable, easy to understand, and well worth reading. Readers also mention the author demonstrates in a fluid narrative that there is a growing body of research on personal habits.

"...The flush of winning, free travel feel good. You also end up gambling away your life savings...." Read more

"...A big part of the value in this book is its parade of human stories about how people have succeeded in replacing old habits with new ones...." Read more

"...It is a fascinating book, and especially so when it focuses in on the habits that make our lives what they are...." Read more

"...This focus lead Alcoa to become very profitable, and successful. This Keystone habit played a critical role...." Read more

2,123 customers mention "Insight"2,067 positive56 negative

Customers find the book informative and interesting. They say it has valuable exercises and is well-researched. Readers also appreciate the fascinating examples rooted in brain science.

"...The training not only gives them great work skills some of which can be used for college credit but they also give you life skills...." Read more

"...Habits can be simple or more complex, making short work of such activities as: brushing one's teeth while thinking about the workday ahead; driving..." Read more

"...Habits allow behavior to unfold automatically and without thinking, so that once we set them in motion, they unfold along established pathways. “..." Read more

"...bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget...." Read more

330 customers mention "Enjoyment"228 positive102 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book. Some find it entertaining, engaging, and interesting. However, others say it's boring, disappointing, and has too much filler.

"...They also make for very entertaining reading on what might be a very dry subject...." Read more

"...and sociology, The Power of Habit is one of the most accessible and entertaining.Readability Light -+--- Serious..." Read more

"......" Read more

"...It's still a fun story and well worth reading. The world may not change, but lots of people will be better off for having read this book." Read more

123 customers mention "Ease of use"60 positive63 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the ease of use of the book. Some mention it's a pleasure to read, with clearly and understandable concepts. They say the habits simplify life and reduce cognitive load. However, others say the book seems simplistic, has a hard time following the logic, and lacks direction from description of habits to application.

"...The one disappointment I find is a lack of chapter summaries and sub-chapter headings...." Read more

"...What actually happened was that the work environment became much more streamlined, efficient, and democratic..." Read more

"...On the negative side, the organization of the book is somewhat muddled, as there is significant overlap in the parts on individuals and organizations..." Read more

"...Well written, easy to understand and apply the recommendations." Read more

Great Read!
5 out of 5 stars
Great Read!
I’m only about halfway through this book, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Charles Duhigg is a great writer (likely from his years of reporting and journalism) and uses interesting stories/anecdotes for each of the points he makes. He uses real world examples of businesses such as Starbucks, Walt Disney, Deloitte to further his claims, which make it fascinating to follow. This is not one of those “5 steps to success” type books with a rote outline to memorize and follow, but rather a look into certain people and companies that have found success through mastering a habitual routine — and the author provides the details and explanations behind those routines. Highly recommend!
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2012
Habits are things that can raise us up to the pinnacle of heaven or plunge us to the depths of misery. The author examines the habit loop and gives a thorough analysis of how it impacts our life and how we can use this influence to make positive changes. Thorough research was done in the writing of this book. Companies like Starbucks, Febreze, Pepsodent and and Alcoa were looked at as models of success and how the habit loop works. They also make for very entertaining reading on what might be a very dry subject.

The part of the brain responsible for habits is the basal ganglia, not memory. The habit loop itself is a circular model that starts with a cue,then proceeds with a routine and then finishes with a reward. To create positive habits and /or eradicate new habits one must tweak the elements of the habit loop. The most effective habit changes involve modifying the routine part of the habit loop. In a sense you are already modifying a current habit. So to start a new habit you need to get in a new routine. Before the advent of Pepsodent, people really did not brush their teeth. Yeah that meant bad breath and a film over your teeth. Gross and yuck and yeah the nation suffered from poor hygiene. To sell toothpaste though you needed a new habit and yeah this one caught on. The reward part was manipulated here and thee reward was white teeth (which could be obtained by eating an apple) and that sharps sparkling taste in your mouth when you are done. The lather in shampoo serves the same function. Febreze used it as well. It was discovered on accident in a lab. It did such a great job killing odors that once you used it you put it in the closet and forgot about it. Not great for sales so you tweak the reward. After a good cleaning people liked a heavily perfumed spray just to finish things off. The company modified the formula.

But sometimes changing the routine is not enough. In alcoholics anonymous which is a spiritual program they work with two or three things. One is the inventory which helps you identify the cues that make you want to drink. The second part is belief, you have to believe that things can get better . That is where the belief in a higher power comes in. Another example of belief playing a role was the team called the Bucs, a losing football team. The coach came in and taught them to memorize a few key plays by wrote. They drilled these routines to death until they knew them cold. They were successful all the way until the finals and then they started slipping up. They did not win the super bowl and the coach ended up transferring to another team he repeated the same process but with the new team something changed. The change was a a death in the coaches family of his son. It forced the team to pull together and believe. They won the super bowl. Belief and a support group.

Starbucks has one of the best training programs hands down and they treat their employees right. The training not only gives them great work skills some of which can be used for college credit but they also give you life skills. One worker could not even hold down a job. He was the product of a broken family and his inner anger lead to temper flare ups at work among other things. Starbucks had something called a notebook where you write up a problem that arises then you write down your solution to the problem and then you practice it. This guy ended up getting a position in management. Bravo Starbucks. The book also analyzes how Howard Schultz bought the company and built it up to what it is today.

A new CEO steps up at Alcoa. He totally shocks everyone by telling them he is going to focus on safety. A real turn off because people really care about money not worker safety. The CEO sets up a communication system that allows for employees to communicate with their supervisors and even the CEO himself. It also calls for interdepartmental communication. They end up with a near perfect safety record and they also boost productivity and stock values soar. This shows the power of changing key habits to change the over all scene.

An analysis of how markets work is included by showcasing how Target Dept. Stores use computer to track consumer spending habits so they could determine which coupon they should send to you. They were so accurate that it creeped out the customer. Solution make it appear more random, so instead of sending a pregnant woman a bunch of ads for diapers and baby products they would mix it up with ads and coupons for a lawn mower. Make everything regular and familiar. Of course they use this to sell you stuff you will want in the future even before you know you'll want it. Familiarity and regularizes also help hit songs become successful.

The last two chapters focus on societal habits by examining the growth of the Saddle Back Church and the Montgomery bus strike involving Rosa Parks. This first chapter puts the leadership not in the hand of one person but in the hands of the people and it works. The Saddle back Church focuses on small weekday study groups that meet in people's homes with or without the pastor. In the Montgomery Bus strike it showed the power of Personal Connections and also what is called weak links or what I call loose associations. We know it as peer pressure to invoke change.

Finally there is the trick Casinos use.They reward you with all sorts of bonuses to get you to come to their casino. The flush of winning, free travel feel good. You also end up gambling away your life savings. Are you free to stop are you compelled to keep gambling. The story is contrasted to night terrors and sleep walking. Habit happen unconsiously when we sleep. fortunately for most our brain paralyzes us so we cannot move but for other they at function does not works. The subconscious is free to cause you to sleep walk, act out in violent fear. Force of habit.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2012
The Economist magazine calls this a "first-rate" business book and I agree. Charles Duhigg tells of people - individuals, businesses, and other organizations - who carry out routines and act on habits in recurrent situations. The book puts a spotlight on people who succeed at shedding some habits and bringing new ones to life - in themselves and in people around them. In these pages lie a powerful concept and illustrative stories.

Habits can be efficient. When a habit is activated, we don't have to think so much about all the steps and breaths we take. Habits can be simple or more complex, making short work of such activities as: brushing one's teeth while thinking about the workday ahead; driving a car while listening to the radio; or tending to customers, fielding their requests, and responding routinely in a warm, appreciative manner. Routines can do a lot of good when it comes to maintaining desirable habits. But things can get challenging when we would like a habit to be changed.

A big part of the value in this book is its parade of human stories about how people have succeeded in replacing old habits with new ones. There are a few stories, too, about people who tried but failed to change a bad habit. Along the way, the author sketches a do-it-yourself model. He talks about people identifying existing "habit loops" which may include external triggers of time, place, people, and situations. Then, the idea is to interrupt and redirect activity toward the desired goals, eventually forming new habits.

In some examples, small "wins" are shown leading to bigger wins as people build skills and confidence in new ways of doing things. And in stories of organizational or cultural habits, positive changes are shown sometimes to set off a ripple effect, where new habits spread to more people in a kind of social contagion.

Charles Duhigg is a New York Times journalist and a graduate of Harvard Business School. He draws together a sampling of psychological research and real-life examples in business and other organizational endeavors. "The Power of Habit" delivers Duhigg's report in the form of a book full of good stories about people who exemplify the concept of "habit" in action, including direct interviews with some of the players in the stories. With this Duhigg presents a psychological concept of habits that a general audience might apply in everyday business and personal life. This book, if it reaches a large readership, may follow in the grooves of what journalist and psychologist Daniel Goleman's books did to popularize "emotional intelligence" and "EQ." (Goleman focuses on business applications of emotional intelligence in his 1998 book, Working with Emotional Intelligence.)

Duhigg's stories are interesting in their own right, easy to understand, and memorable. They run the gamut from sports to neurosurgery, and from marketing toothpaste to overhauling the managerial culture of a heavy industrial corporation.

For example, chapter 2 "The Craving Brain: How to Create New Habits," showcases breakthroughs in consumer marketing (and in one case, the dental health of a whole society) connected to habit changes. The examples cover a variety of marketing obstacles and breakaway solutions including Pepsodent toothpaste, Schlitz beer, and Febreze household deodorizer.

Chapter 5, "Starbucks and the Habit of Success: When Willpower Becomes Automatic," talks about staff training programs that have been credited with enhancing customer service and tuning up whole organizational cultures. Examples besides Starbucks include Deloitte Consulting and the Container Store.

Perhaps the most colorful and intriguing business story in the book is about the managerial successes of Paul O'Neill when he was CEO of the aluminum company Alcoa. (He later went on to serve as U.S. Treasury Secretary.) This is told mostly in Chapter 4, "Keystone Habits, or the Ballad of Paul O'Neill: Which Habits Matter Most." When O'Neill became CEO of Alcoa in 1987, he spearheaded the company on a headlong drive to achieve an error-free standard of employee safety. He rallied employees up and down the hierarchy, and across functions, to the cause of becoming "the safest company in America... [despite that]... employees work with metals that are 1500 degrees and can rip a man's arm off." (p. 98)

At first, Alcoa's investors and employees alike were skeptical, seeing O'Neill's radical quest for superiority in employee safety as too narrow, quixotic, and off-center. O'Neill conceived of the safety charge as a focal point that would trigger all sorts of changes in routines and habits of accountability throughout the company. Preventing employee injuries became a "keystone habit" in Duhigg's lingo, that would set off a ripple effect leading to an upswing in total corporate performance.

It worked. Within a year, Alcoa's profits reached an all-time high. Over a 13-year run with O'Neill at the helm, profits and the stock price both increased by 400%. Time lost to worker injuries declined to one-twentieth the U.S. average. Duhigg's book cites interviews with O'Neill himself and other Alcoa people who were there, and mentions that Alcoa stands as a case study in business schools.

"The Power of Habit" shines a bright light on organizational habits, but not only that. Duhigg serves up stories that point to individual habits, with relevance for personal success, such as interrupting a snacking habit or ending addictions. I see Duhigg's concept of habit loops as compatible with and complementary to the work of food and marketing psychologist Brian Wansink in his excellent book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (2006). At the other end of the scale, Duhigg talks about habits changing at a societal level of attitudes and behavior, offering an analysis of the civil rights movement's Montgomery bus boycott as an example.

The one disappointment I find is a lack of chapter summaries and sub-chapter headings. While the book certainly is accessible "as is," such aids would make it easier to tie together diverse examples, remember themes and links, and go back to them later. The Audible.com version in particular is harder going without summaries and sub-headings because one is not looking at pages with the chapter heading in the upper right, nor is the listener just a page flip away from glancing at the book's table of contents. The Audible.com version also could do a better job of mentioning the printed book's many visual diagrams for listeners who are interested enough to cross-refer.

The book begins and ends with fitting references to the 19th-century writings of an American philosopher and psychologist, William James, who elucidated the concept of habit before there was much science behind it. James was a prime mover in establishing two major streams of modern social science and philosophy: 1.) behavioral psychology - that is, putting a scientific focus on observable behavior and developing interventions to help people shape their lives according to their better ideals; and 2.) the philosophy of pragmatism - which for James meant evaluating scientific theories according to their "cash-value." In James's pragmatist view, a good theory is one that does good work in the minds of those who use it.

James saw "habit," like Duhigg does, as a core aspect of human nature. Duhigg draws attention to success stories in habit replacement, from dental hygiene to aluminum manufacture. In keeping with the philosophical pulse of James the pragmatist, I give Duhigg's "The Power of Habit" a five-star rating for its eye-opening reports on useful research, chock full of real-world examples. Plus the book is written in a style that is vivid and inviting.
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Fábio Schorn
5.0 out of 5 stars Ótimo livro!
Reviewed in Brazil on October 13, 2024
Ótimo livro!
Luciano
5.0 out of 5 stars un libro che mi e' davvero piaciuto
Reviewed in Italy on February 19, 2024
Non il solito libro con frasi fatte e massime da guru del settore. Un vero e prorpio capolavoro di letteratura, e racconto. Questo perche e' scritto molto bene, non a caso e' un best seller.

Lo consiglio, non fa miracoli ma e' una bella lettura :)
T
5.0 out of 5 stars Wenn man die Taktiken in diesem Buch anwendet überlebt man eine Überraschung!
Reviewed in Germany on February 6, 2022
Das perfekte buch für Leute die die Mechanismen des menschlichen Verhaltens verstehen möchten.

Das Buch vermittelt die Zusammenhänge von Gewohnheiten mit unserem alltäglichen Leben und zeigt auf wie man sie zum positiven nutzen kann.
Es ist auf ein Auditorium mit Grundverständnissen über Psychologie ausgelegt, jedoch ist es auch für Laien gut verständlich geschrieben.
Es wird viel mit Beispielen gearbeitet und es ist oft die Rede von Themen die jeder kennt.

Alles in allem ein sehr gutes buch zur Weiterbildung und Krisenbewältigung, es hat mir geholfen aus einer Krise herauszukommen und wieder aufzublühen.
Chale
5.0 out of 5 stars Un libro fundamental si quieres....
Reviewed in Spain on December 8, 2020
Un libro fundamental si quieres entender y cambiar tus (malos) hábitos y comprender el "porqué" de las cosas, el sistema de recompensas, como funcionan nuestros mecanismos bioquímicos, psicológicos y comportamentales. Todo con base científica sin ser una lectura aburrida. P.D. leer este libro, me ayudó de alguna manera a dejar de fumar sustituyendo unos cuantos malos hábitos acumulados en el tiempo con buenas costumbres. 100% recomendable
Carlo Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars Just what the psychiatrist ordered.
Reviewed in Mexico on February 25, 2018
Here's the thing. I have been struggling with depression and anxiety for the bettter part of the last 6 years. As you may well know by this, my life now, despite myself being a bit better, is a total chaos. My house is chaos (and I live alone), my routines are chaos (and include 10+ hours of surfing the web), my relationships are chaos (and so many people have chosen to stay away) and it all created a weird unending cycle because a living environment that is a complete chaos can actually make you depressed and anxious, but being anxious and depressed will put your living environment in a complete chaos.

Not anymore.

Or rather, it's starting to actually change. One small change at a time. Using this well explained and well researched little book I was able to put some order into all of the chaos. It's not a huge change right now, at least not from the outside, but being able to breath more calmly because at the very least I can keep some order and do some light cleaning around my life it's a huge deal for someone that has the problems I do. Everyday now I wake up at the same time, I do some light cleaning, cook something healthier and do five minutes of breathing afterwards. Enough to keep me more focused and less prone to sudden mood changes if things don't go great during the rest of the day. And I know this is just the start.

This is the book to change your life. If you are desperate enough to change it and honest enough to recognize you need some extra help (besides medicine and therapy, which also help a lot! by the way, but sometimes we need a little extra).

And I just can't recommend it enough to anyone that is looking to do something else, to get themselves out of a tough emotional situation or that just want a better overall life for themselves and those around them.