The books and voices below are the ones that shaped the thinking behind this pillar. They are a small, curated list rather than a comprehensive one — the behaviour change literature is vast and most of it adds marginal value. These are where we would point a member who wants to go further.
The Kindness Method — Shahroo Izadi. The editorial anchor for this pillar. Izadi is a UK-based Behavioural Change Specialist whose work grew out of years at the Amy Winehouse Foundation’s Amy’s Place recovery house, in NHS settings, and in prisons. The method translates motivational-interviewing techniques from addiction recovery into everyday habit change. Built around a series of handwritten ‘maps’ the reader completes themselves. The single best starting point for members who want to apply the kindness-based approach in practice.
Unwinding Anxiety — Judson Brewer. Brewer is an addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Brown University. The book extends the kindness approach to the habit-breaking side: mapping habit loops, noticing how a behaviour actually feels in practice rather than in memory, and finding alternatives that deliver genuine satisfaction. The natural companion to Izadi’s method — both reject willpower, both use self-observation rather than self-criticism.
Atomic Habits — James Clear. The most widely-read contemporary book on habit formation. Draws on the Wood, Duhigg, and Fogg research base. Practical, accessible, and the clearest popular introduction to cue-based habit design. Worth reading alongside Izadi rather than instead of — Clear’s focus is habit architecture, Izadi’s is the internal tone members bring to the work.
Tiny Habits — BJ Fogg. Fogg runs the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford, and much of the academic research Clear and Duhigg popularise draws on his earlier work. His practical insight — start smaller than you think, tie the new behaviour to an existing anchor, celebrate immediately — aligns closely with the implementation-intention evidence. Notably, Fogg explicitly rejects shame and willpower as drivers of change: ‘negative emotions like shame and guilt are not effective; positive emotions such as kindness and flexibility will create change.’ Reads as a natural Fogg-Izadi bridge.
Charles Duhigg’s earlier The Power of Habit (2012) is also worth mentioning. It is the book that introduced the ‘habit loop’ framework into public consciousness, and is particularly good on the neuroscience and on cases of institutional habit change. Read it if you want the broader cultural context; the four above are the more practical starting points.
The Diary of a CEO — Shahroo Izadi (E222) — Steven Bartlett. A 58-minute conversation with Izadi about the Kindness Method and her own journey. Includes the line this pillar has organised itself around: ‘If you would not talk to a friend in a particular way, then don’t talk to yourself that way.’ The single best way for members to hear the kindness approach in Izadi’s own voice before committing to the book.
The Diary of a CEO — James Clear (December 2025) — Steven Bartlett. A two-hour conversation with Clear on habit formation for 2026, covering the two-minute rule, identity-based habits, environmental design, and energy management. BJ Fogg’s habit-stacking approach features throughout. Effectively a single long episode that summarises much of what Atomic Habits and Tiny Habits both cover.
The Dr Jud Podcast — Judson Brewer. Brewer’s interview podcast covering anxiety, habits, and the neuroscience of change. Conversational but substantive. Particularly good episodes with clinicians working in addiction and trauma.
3-2-1 Thursday — James Clear. Weekly email newsletter from Clear covering habit formation, productivity, and applied behavioural science. Short, curated, consistently useful — the written-word equivalent of a short, well-chosen podcast.
Forever Well’s monthly themes are structured around the behaviour change principles this pillar describes. Each month’s content includes a practical challenge tied to cue-based habit formation, check-ins that support self-regulation, and guided reflection on what has worked and what has not. For members who want the structured application of what this pillar covers, the programme itself is the most direct route.
