At a time when the health & wellness industry was obsessed with fad diets—and in many ways it still is—Dr. A’s Habits of Health introduced the world to ideas and strategies about habit formation and the role habits play in not only our weight control but also in our longevity as a whole.
The book included the traditional healthy eating and physical movement because they are part of a healthy lifestyle, but we also looked at the broader realities of how nearly every choice we make each day can have a positive or negative affect on our health. For example, the Habits of Health cover everything from sleep to stress management when we zoom out and talk about the habit loops that drive our daily behaviors.
My friend and colleague Robert Fritz was an important influence on the Habits of Health when I first published the book in 2008. He helped to incorporate the creative process and structural dynamics into how we assist people in creating new habits. Since then, both of us have worked with thousands of people and have evolved our thinking based on our work with clients and the latest research.
The result of that work is Identity.
A response to the self-esteem movement
Identity is a groundbreaking book that explores how identity issues thwart the ability to create the life you want. The ideas in this book give you the opportunity to truly become the dominant force and author of your life-building process.
We wrote this book as a response to the self-esteem movement and the expanse of “love yourself” mania. The self-esteem movement is about one thing and one thing only: identity. The theory is simple. If you don’t think well of yourself, you won’t think you deserve success and therefore will sabotage yourself into underachievement. If you don’t think well of yourself, the theory goes, you are doomed to living a miserable life.
And it is entirely false.
We want to challenge the idea that self-esteem is a key driver of personal success and instead equip readers with practical tools and insights that actually work. In fact, obsessing over self-esteem and improving what you think of yourself could hold you back from achieving the goals you set yourself.
A tool to help you create the life you want
Robert and I talked at length about how these ideas go against the grain and run counter to what the latest generation of gurus are preaching. Just as it was with Dr. A’s Habits of Health, our ultimate goal is to awaken people so that they can create the lives they want.
We’re excited about what Identity will do for the people that read it, and over the next few weeks I’ll be exploring some of the core ideas of the book in new blog posts. In the meantime, you can get early access to the book and start transforming your thinking today.