Change Your Habits, Change Your Life by Ashdin Doctor (Book Review: 3.75*/5) !!!

2062nd BLOG POST

14^th Book of 2023

I remember the time when I was in my last phase of teenage when everything was going wrong for me. It wasn’t the era when social media was omnipresent. If one had to come out of their below-average life, one had to learn their lessons only through books. Thankfully, I read one then which taught me about the importance of managing our day well as eventually the same days are later collectively called as month, year and life. One thought changed me enough to concentrate on how I live my day with good habits forming major part of it. It’s 15 years since then but I am yet fascinated by the power of good habits which made me pick up another book based upon it named “Change your habits, change your life” written by Ashdin Doctor. The book also goes along with a tagline which says “Your guide to an awesome life”.

 

Speaking about the author, Ashdin calls himself a Habit Coach who helps his clients understand how they can bring granular changes in their daily routine to finally get out of bad habits and follow all the good habits they always wanted to indulge in. He has a Youtube channel where he shares tips regularly as well as conduct podcasts which helps us understand perspectives on this. Ashdin knows well how to engage his readers and just as he advises to insert habits gradually in our routine, he takes us into the important concepts gradually after preparing us well to not get overwhelmed right from the 1^st sentence itself. This book falls into the self-help genre and hence, unlike other books, it doesn’t try to motivate you in your face but speaks like a friend.

 

Ashdin has kept the tone conversational without trying to sound preachy. The book has been divided in several segments and further into smaller chapters. Every chapter is further explained in different bullet points which makes it easier for you to make notes while reading. At the end, author asks us to do an exercise. Frankly speaking, the book needs to be read slowly at the pace of one chapter per day so that you can do your exercises mindfully making you understand Ashdin’s intent behind every chapter clearly.

 

In the 1^st 10 pages itself, I was floored by the two formulas that is been shared: One being – Routines + Emotions = Rituals and second – Habits + Routines + Rituals = Life. The impact of simply these two concepts blew my mind and I understood that I am going to read something very important further in this book. The explanation of Inspiration and Motivation is also defined properly which helps you in understanding that both of these are extrinsic factors whereas what you should be focusing upon is Intention for which you want to inculcate certain habit in your life. In one chapter, author discusses several frictions that comes in between when we are about to take first step towards a good habit and how we can fight against them in order to avoid getting distracted.

 

Later, there’s a story author shares about Milo and the Bull which is one of the most effective short stories I have ever read. It helped me understand what the power of compounding can do to our lives if we stay focused on improving every day. I liked the two-day concept shared by Ashdin which tells how we can work upon our habits by not dying to execute it every day but trying to maintain a balance initially with our current lifestyle and the proposed lifestyle. In the last chapter, Doctor shares case study of around 5 patients on whom he worked where each of them came to him with different problem statement and goal. This helps us understand how different kind of problems can be treated by focusing on just one part of our life – Building good habits.

 

Overall, this book is of around 200 pages which can be completed by anyone within few sittings. You can even read it multiple times to keep yourself refreshed with the concepts. Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that most of what Ashdin has shared is already mentioned in some book or Youtube video hence there are very pages which are actually unique. Similarly, I feel that there could have been a better way of describing few concepts with examples and diagrammatical representation to make them look more realistic and effective. Rest, this book should be on your shelf if you are fighting with your cluttered life. I give this book 3.7 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA