Only Nuns Change Habits Overnight by Karen Scalf Linamen

Do you ever feel like you're stuck in a rut… a deep, wide, mucky rut that you will never be able to escape?

Maybe it's a habit that's been keeping you trapped here for so long. A wrong relationship that you can't seem to make right. Or maybe… life just isn't going the way you thought it should and you don't know why.

Change is possible, and I just discovered 52 ways you can make it happen in your life too.

I've just finished reading Only Nuns Change Habit Overnight by celebrated author Karen Scalf Linamen. She's the best-selling author of Chocolatherapy, so you know she's a woman who really gets it. Plus, she can't keep spaghetti sauce off her clothes either. I like her already.

The subtitle is 52 Amazing Ways to Master the Art of Personal Change. In this book, her premise is that women like us often miss out on the lives we want to lead… not because we don't know how to set goals or manage our time… but because we don't have the skills to move from having the desire to actually achieving that desire.

Linamen examines the reasons behind many common issues women struggle with, like weight loss, relationships, careers. She also looks closely at the reasons why we procrastinate.

According to Linamen, we don't procrastinate because we're lazy, or because we can't manage our time. No,the real reason why I haven't finished replacing my living room baseboards after taking them down to paint five years ago is because of the uncomfortable emotions that bubble up whenever I start the project. (Frustration because I don't know where I put my tools, worry that it won't look perfect when I'm done.) And she gives baby steps to help me get through those emotions and finally get that task finished.

What I appreciated the most is that throughout the book, you're reminded that real change - life-changing change - doesn't happen overnight. After all, this is a woman who wears black because she can't keep anything else clean, so she allows me to keep my unfinished living room walls for a little while longer.

Instead, the change she encourages is a process you can follow step by step. She gives you 52 of them, but following just one might be enough to start a snowball effect of change in your own life.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon so you can find out for yourself.