Book Recommendation - The Power of Habit

The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

With the new year comes thoughts of turning over a new leaf. We set intention in our hearts to leave old, destructive habits behind and to pick up new, healthy ones. We make internal promises to clean up our eating, to exercise more, to get better sleep, to be more present, to read more. For Christians, we often turn to our spiritual life as well. We desire to get closer to God. We want to leave sinful patterns behind. We want to pray more, be in the scriptures more.

The reality is that for all of the good intentions, we rarely succeed in implementing real lasting change. Why is that? What keeps us stuck in the same old ruts? Why is it that we struggle so much to change? That is a complex question and falls directly into my oversight as I try to help with discipleship for Redemption Gilbert. I have read many books on spiritual formation (many of which I will be recommending this year) but this book is a very interesting look how we are shaped by patterns of habit.

If you are a fan of Malcolm Gladwell or the Freakonomics guys, then this book is right up your alley. An interesting look at how habits shape us, trap us and are used by business to shape our consumer habits.