Here are the last five loopholes that Rubin proposes. Remember loopholes are excuses we make for avoiding habits that will help us become better than before.
"This Doesn't Count" Loophole - "We tell ourselves that for some reason, THIS circumstance doesn't count." Examples often used include: vacations, holidays, weekends, illness, it's a one-time…
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Though Rubin's title for this chapter is actually "Nothing Stays in Vegas," I much prefer her tagline to the title, "Loophole Spotting."
She says "Loopholes often flit through out minds, almost below the level of consciousness. If we recognize them, we can judge them and stop kidding ourselves. It's when we deceive ourselves that our…
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Occasionally we need to allow ourselves to break a good habit without losing the good habit completely. Rubin has named this safeguard the planned exception. One advantage of this terminology is that it makes the distinction between an impulsive decision and a planned decision. As an adult we can mindfully make an exception to a usual…
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The goal of safeguards is to help avoid breaking good habits and provide a way to deal effectively with lapses.
Remembering that a lapse does not mean total failure is an important perspective to remember.
Stumbles are a natural part of habit formation and an effective strategy to protect a habit. Rubin sounds a lot like…
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In this chapter titled "A Stumble May Prevent a Fall," Rubin explores the paradox of habits. They are surprisingly tough and also surprisingly fragile.
The subtitle, "Safeguards," captures the essence of the strategies she offers - anticipate and minimize temptation. Rubin explains that there is "a downward pull toward bad habits that requires us to maintain an…
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"It's Hard to Make Things Easier - Convenience" is where I left off in blogging about the book Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. The theme of this book is all about creating habits (in case you've forgotten since it's been a number of weeks since I last wrote about this topic).
Rubin says that…
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