Contents
- 1. “This year I… How to change habits, keep promises, or do what you have long dreamed of.” MJ Ryan
- 2. “No self-pity. Push the limits of your possibilities” by Eric Bertrand Larssen
- 3. “One habit a week. Change yourself in a year” Brett Blumenthal
- 4. “An easy way to start a new life. How to get rid of stress, internal conflicts and bad habits by Neyla Fiore
- 5. “Healthy Habits” by Lydia Ionova
Walk more often, stop eating at night, not hang out on social networks … We are determined to change, but we remain where we were. How to “rewrite the program” of a life that no longer suits us? Five books to help motivate yourself.
1. “This year I… How to change habits, keep promises, or do what you have long dreamed of.” MJ Ryan
“If you sow a habit, you reap a character; if you sow a character, you reap a destiny,” this wisdom has been familiar to us since childhood. But why is it so difficult for us to sow good habits? Why do once fixed automatic actions have such power over us? “People can change,” says business coach and coach MJ Ryan. But what is easy to talk about is not always easy to do. After all, our brains are hardwired to do the same thing over and over again.”
And in order to take advantage of another property of our gray cells – plasticity, serious practical work is needed. “Most brain researchers talk about a period of 6 to 10 months – how different from the marketing promises of seven days of training,” notes MJ Ryan. And he tells in detail how to believe in yourself, set specific goals and clear time frames, and most importantly, not deviate from what was planned during the period when the habit is just being formed.
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2013.
2. “No self-pity. Push the limits of your possibilities” by Eric Bertrand Larssen
Eric Bertrand Larssen looks at the process of forming good habits more optimistically: he assures that some action becomes natural after its 13-fold repetition. It is important only during the acquisition of a new habit to do everything consciously. And he explains how. Erik Larssen is a very famous person in Norway. He served in the Norwegian armed forces for 8 years and then became a coach for businessmen and athletes, some of whom later won Olympic medals.
This book was sold in Norway with a circulation of 223 thousand copies, that is, every 20th inhabitant of the country bought it. The success of the book confirms how great our desire is to change, to become strong enough (physically and mentally) to manage life and not succumb to difficulties. Larssen writes about how to push the boundaries of his capabilities and achieve goals that seemed unattainable, based on his own experience and the example of his acquaintances and clients. Of course, no book can become a long-term motivator, but it certainly can push you to the next step.
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2015.
3. “One habit a week. Change yourself in a year” Brett Blumenthal
“Learn to take breaks”, “Feel free to thank others”, “Don’t stay too long in your comfort zone”, “Write everything down” – these and 48 other useful skills, conditionally distributed over a whole year (one week to master one skill), are the basis the author’s program of wellness trainer with 20 years of experience Brett Blumenthal. She has already used her method of “small steps”, gradual changes in her other books to maintain physical fitness and to form healthy eating habits.
Here we are talking about achieving well-being in general, about positive changes in the mental and spiritual state. The author promises that by following her plan, in a year you will become better at coping with stress, become more productive, remember important information more easily and be able to feel more satisfied with life. You can get ahead of schedule and learn new habits at your own pace, but the author insists on implementing all 52 changes: they only work in combination.
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2016.
4. “An easy way to start a new life. How to get rid of stress, internal conflicts and bad habits by Neyla Fiore
In the original, the book by American psychologist and trainer Neil Fiore is called Awaken Your Strongest Self – “awaken your strongest self”. And it is precisely the methods of awakening the “strongest “I” and the ways of interacting with it and using it that the author devotes his work. Fiore suggests, for example, immersing yourself in stressful situations in order to learn how to resist and benefit from them. Or take responsibility and show leadership qualities even in those cases when it is much more common for us to retreat into the shadows.
Neil Fiore provides clear and well-founded recommendations for achieving all of the goals listed in the subheading. Moreover, the way to achieve them is very wide – from special breathing techniques to purely psychological exercises.
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2014.
5. “Healthy Habits” by Lydia Ionova
It is about the gradual change of habits, and not about short-term diets, that cardiologist and nutritionist Lidia Ionova is talking about. Usually diets involve a drastic change in diet, and her program is designed for 12 weeks, with all innovations being added slowly, one every seven days. For example, in the second week it is proposed to draw up a weight loss schedule, in the third – to develop a reward system for yourself, in the tenth – to come up with a way to become more active.
A very important point is keeping a food diary (its effectiveness has been scientifically proven!), which makes a conscious attitude to food and, more broadly, to one’s own lifestyle habitual. But the program also has “pitfalls” – inevitable breakdowns, the need to devote too much time to it … You can learn about this from the personal stories of the program participants included in the book.
Mann, Ivanov & Ferber, 2013.