The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions

by Michael Norton

Overview

In the bestselling tradition of Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit and Angela Duckworth’s Grit, a renowned social psychologist demonstrates how a subtle turning of habits into rituals can “clear a little space for everyday magic” (The Guardian) in our lives.

Our lives are filled with repetitive tasks meant to keep us on track—what we come to know as habits. Over time, these routines (like brushing your teeth or putting on your right sock first) tend to be performed automatically. But when we’re more mindful about these actions—when we focus on the precise way they are performed—they can instead become rituals. Shifting from a “habitual” mindset to a “ritual” mindset can convert ordinary acts from black and white to technicolor.

Think about the way you savor a certain beverage, the care you take with a particular outfit that gets worn only on special occasions, the unique way that your family gathers around the table during holidays, or the secret language you enjoy with your significant other. To some, these behaviors may seem quirky, but because rituals matter so deeply to us on a personal level, they give our lives purpose and meaning. Drawing on a decade of original research, Norton shows that rituals play a role in healing communities experiencing a great loss, marking life’s major transitions, driving a stadium of sports fans to ecstasy, and helping us rise to challenges and realize opportunities.

Compelling, insightful, and practical, The Ritual Effect reminds us of the intention-filled acts that drive human behavior and create sur­prising satisfaction and enjoyment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982153021
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	72,008
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Michael Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has studied human behavior as it relates to love and inequality, time and money, and happiness and grief. He is the author of The Ritual Effect and the coauthor—with Elizabeth Dunn—of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. In 2012, he was selected by Wired magazine as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World.” His TEDx talk, How to Buy Happiness, has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times. He is a frequent contributor to such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Scientific American, and has made numerous television, radio, and podcast appearances.

Editorial Reviews

Selected as SELF Magazine’s Book of the Month

“Norton lauds the capacity of ritual to infuse quotidian acts with a sense of consequence...enjoyable fare...abounds in recommendations for ways we readers may add the emollient of ritual to our own lives.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Amiable and diverting...offers a reason for cautious optimism: in a disenchanted world, attention to tiny rituals can clear a little space for everyday magic.”
—The Guardian

“The Ritual Effect isn’t your typical, preachy self-help manual. In fact, Norton has no interest in telling you which rituals are worth adopting—that part is up to you. Instead, the book breaks down the true meaning of rituals and positive ways they can impact your relationships, personal and professional lives, and sense of self, reframing the concept as something much fresher, more special, and more accessible than you may have once thought.”
—SELF Magazine

“Norton’s fascinating The Ritual Effect encourages us to experiment with, explore, and discover rituals to help transform the ordinary into the extraordinary...lively...may be just what the doctor ordered.”
—BookPage

“An eye-opening window into why we swear by certain routines—and how we can build more enriching ones.”
—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

“Fascinating...Featuring lively storytelling and cutting-edge science, The Ritual Effect sticks with you.”
—Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators

“A masterclass...opens our eyes to the rituals we already perform—and the ones we can choose to create—which have the remarkable power to infuse the mundane with meaning and emotion.”
—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit

“Endlessly fascinating...will stir you to see your beliefs and relationships with fresh eyes.”
—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, Drive, and When

“Masterfully shows that, from the religious to the secular, rituals in your life play a central role in reaping full value from each moment.”
—Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of From Strength to Strength

“A witty, thought-provoking guide...If you want to understand and harness the psychological power of rituals to live and think better, this is the book for you.”
—Laurie Santos, Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology at Yale University and host of The Happiness Lab podcast

“Illuminating and inspiring...The Ritual Effect gives readers new insights into the everyday actions that shape our lives.”
—BJ Fogg, New York Times bestselling author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything

From the Publisher

The need for rituals to promote a life of meaning is greater than ever, according to this inspiring audiobook. Harvard Professor Michael Norton's easy-listening performance makes his insights accessible. His confidence sounds professional and never overworked, allowing his knowledge and suggestions to speak for themselves. He says rituals have a broader purpose than habits because they create deep emotional associations, rather than simply automating behavior. Most interestingly, he shows how to turn ordinary habits into rituals by intentionally elevating their status and magnifying their impact on our lives. With powerful examples and a tone of encouragement, he shows how we can become more intentional with the rituals we create for ourselves and our communities. T.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2024 - AudioFile

2024-01-18
A Harvard behavioral scientist provides validation for “ritualistic behavior.”

Norton pries apart personal from religious ritual—i.e., a series of actions performed in just the same way as a species of magical thinking, though ritual can be much more than that. He recounts, for example, that just as Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has to have a slice of shepherd’s pie before taking the stage, the author followed a pattern of singing and reading to lull his young daughter to sleep. “I instantly and unthinkingly transformed into a shamanic madman,” he writes. That shamanic madness has many purposes: It supposedly effects desired behavior, helps separate ordinary from sacred spaces, and brings luck. The author also pries apart ritual from habit, suggesting that if you don’t care whether you shower or brush your teeth first, then you’re a model pragmatist, but if you observe a certain order, you’re performing a personal rite that may seem meaningless but is full of meaning all the same. A habit, notes Norton, is “the what,” and the ritual is “the how,” and between the two lies a world of difference. Those personal rituals, our own hows, lend a sort of purpose to our lives, and if they’re shared, as one might do in a church or a club, “they do bring the larger group together and serve as an affirmation—reminding us that together we have gotten through this experience before.” As Norton assures us, rituals have their uses, whether the annual practice of spring cleaning or preparing dishes for a Thanksgiving feast—and they become, in time, the basis of tradition, just as we very likely learned those rituals from parents and other elders.

A good-humored, gentle exhortation to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and add a little magic to our lives.

Kirkus Reviews