The Hard Break

What if the real secret to greater productivity, happiness and success is a habit that is thousands of years old? Productivity has become an international obsession. We celebrate a work culture where people boast of long working hours, their extreme schedules and how little they sleep. A constant stream of emails, texts, tweets and more keeps us connected every minute and we rarely put our phones down. Every moment needs to be maximized and no time can be wasted. And yet most of us also feel something is wrong. All of these attempts at optimizing business and life aren't really making us happier. Ironically, it might not be mak-ing us all that productive either. In this groundbreaking book, noted entrepreneur and money manager Aaron Edelheit breaks down the myths around productivity and offers a startlingly simple solution: the Sabbath. Through his personal journey of discovering the joy of taking a "hard break" of one day a week to reset, Edelheit profiles not only his own life transformation, but how this same practice has been changing the lives of well known entrepreneurs, celebrities and politicians alike. For anyone who has ever struggled to find a good balance between life and work, this book offers an essential roadmap for how to make the right choices, attain more success, put life back into perspective and gain more happiness all by taking a hard break for yourself.

"Well-publicized research in psychology tells us that over half of our attempts to change habitual behavior fail within one year. Even without reading the research, most of us will intuitively sense the truth in this, as we have all tried and failed to rid ourselves of one bad habit or another. The human story of habits and the difficulty of change has been told in many books--most of which will make only a quick reference to dopamine or the 'lizard brain' before moving on to practical tips and tricks for behavior change. In contrast, [this book] will tell the brain's story about why behavior is so hard to change"--

Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award, The Break is a stunning and heartbreaking debut novel about a multigenerational Métis–Anishnaabe family dealing with the fallout of a shocking crime in Winnipeg’s North End. When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house — she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime. In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim — police, family, and friends — tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Through their various perspectives a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed. A powerful intergenerational family saga, The Break showcases Vermette’s abundant writing talent and positions her as an exciting new voice in Canadian literature.

When you really think about it, most of life is something we do out of habit. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the actions we take throughout the day – our “morning routine”, or “regular breakfast”, our “typical commute”, the “daily grind” at work – the habits we develop literally control about 95% of our actions. These types of unconscious thoughts determine what we think, how we feel and how we behave in nearly every situation we find ourselves in. Because our habits dictate all the small details that make up our everyday lives, they also are directly related to the bigger issues in our lives, such as how much money we earn, the kind of person we live with or marry, our physical condition and health, and every other area of our lives. Our habits determine our character, the type of person we project to the rest of the world and, ultimately, our destiny. So, if we embrace bad habits – those habits which have a negative impact on who we are – then those same habits will prevent us from achieving excellence in our lives, holding us back from reaching our fullest potential. It’s only by breaking bad habits and replacing them with good habits that we can ultimately succeed in life and be the people we were truly meant to be. The purpose of this book is to show you how to break bad habits – any sort of bad habit, from those that are damaging to your health, like smoking or not wearing a seatbelt, to those that affect your self-esteem, such as negative thinking or overeating – and replace them with positive behaviors that can become part of your daily life and finally cause you to see the results you truly want. Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was performing the same task over and over again and expecting a different result. When you keep repeating the same bad habits, you would have to be crazy to think that anything will ever change for you. “It’s Not A Hard Habit To Break” will show you how to end the madness and start living your life to its fullest by abandoning bad habits and replacing them with positive ones.

Dumped and depressed because your relationship's over? This smart, funny activity book will help you laugh . . . and heal Breaking up is hard to do, but this original, humorous, and practical book will get you through the pain and help you become more balanced, stable, and confident. It covers all sorts of tender subjects, from Getting Over the First Few Days and Writing your own Break-up Report to Unlocking Emotional Independence and Moving On Up. There are fill-in charts and lists for The Seven Stages of Grief, Your Relationship's Sexiness and Happiness graphs, space to create your Official Break-up Playlist . . . and a whole lot more.

★★★★★ "Now I know what all the hype is about! Such a relatable read!" - Addison Rae, Actress ___ A novel full of truths about dating, separations and love: direct, raw and damn revealing! After a sudden end with another guy she finally opened-up to, Amelia is thrown into a vortex of conflicting thoughts and emotions. Once again, she is forced to reflect on her life and what dating means in the modern world. The answers she finds, especially through a new male friend who unveils the way guys "really" think, makes her even more determined to find something more real. It all helps set her free...maybe... "I resonated with the characters so much, especially Amelia. It's not just a story about a breakup, but so much more and deeper than that." - Demi Rose, Model "Honestly, blew my mind how accurate it is. Definitely recommend!" - Lizzie Sobinoff, Married At First Sight (MAFS) The Modern Break-Up was listed among the top romance novels to read by Popsugar.com.

A RAW STORY ABOUT LIFE FROM THE STREETS TO THE PULPIT. "2 Hard 2 Break" is a story that has been 40 years in the making. Kevin Whitaker grew up in less than perfect conditions surrounded by the inner workings of the ghettos in America. Living in a neighborhood plagued with guns, violence and drugs he chose to conform to his surroundings. After living a life spiraling out of control, he was then faced with 20 years in penitentiary; he had to make some decisions concerning the direction of his life. Like Apostle Whitaker, you can have a "2 Hard 2 Break" mentality, an unstoppable mindset and an unending desire to reach your destiny.

The neuroscience of why bad habits are so hard to break—and how evidence-based strategies can help us change our behavior more effectively We all have habits we’d like to break, but for many of us it can be nearly impossible to do so. There is a good reason for this: the brain is a habit-building machine. In Hard to Break, leading neuroscientist Russell Poldrack provides an engaging and authoritative account of the science of how habits are built in the brain, why they are so hard to break, and how evidence-based strategies may help us change unwanted behaviors. Hard to Break offers a clear-eyed tour of what neuroscience tells us about habit change and debunks “easy fixes” that aren’t backed by science. It explains how dopamine is essential for building habits and how the battle between habits and intentional goal-directed behaviors reflects a competition between different brain systems. Along the way, we learn how cues trigger habits; why we should make rules, not decisions; how the stimuli of the modern world hijack the brain’s habit machinery and lead to drug abuse and other addictions; and how neuroscience may one day enable us to hack our habits. Shifting from the individual to society, the book also discusses the massive habit changes that will be needed to address the biggest challenges of our time. Moving beyond the hype to offer a deeper understanding of the biology of habits in the brain, Hard to Break reveals how we might be able to make the changes we desire—and why we should have greater empathy with ourselves and others who struggle to do so.