30 days to break your bad habit…guaranteed?!
It sounded too good to be true when I came across this notebook online. The makers of the Bad Habit Breaker Journal offer you your money back if it doesn’t work…mmhmmm alright I’ll bite…
“The first 30 years of your life you develop habits. The second 30 years is spent living with them.”
Unknown
Do you have any bad habits? Of course not, you are perfect, I know…I see you. You are great!
I have plenty of bad habits but the one main bad habit that I want to break is snacking on junk food at the end of the day. I have been working on a diet called Optavia and it has been working so far but I keep running into trouble after about 9pm. This is my weak spot and holding me back from what actually will make me happier at the end of the day.
Right out of the gate, the first thing you notice about this journal is that it is expensive. At $48 USD this starts as a premium notebook. Using the popup code on the website you can get 20% off to lower the cost to $38.40. To justify the purchase I noticed that it ships free within the US. That accounts for roughly $8. So at $30 what do we get.
The notebook itself is well made and has a soft fake leather feel. The pages lay flat with the smyth sewn binding. Overall, the notebook is broken down into three sections:
First is the extensive 25-page guide to help set you up for the next 30 days.
Then, each day is broken down into morning and evening questions and daily reviews.
The final section of the book, includes 30 daily quotes to help stay motivated.
For $30 I would gladly appreciate a healthier lifestyle and finally achieve my goal weight. They also have a notebook for this specific goal in mind called the Weight Loss Wonder Journal.
The Bad Habit Breaker notebook also comes with 7 bonus gifts, which are a collection of quotes, plans, templates, checklists, and examples to help get you started before you get the notebook.
From their website, here is a summary of the gifts you will receive:
1. The Beautiful Life Purpose Template
A lot of the time, bad habits come into our lives because we are bored, and lack purpose or a large goal to work towards. This template will help you create a life goal that will act as a shield to keep future bad habits out of your life.
2. The Magnificent 7 Habits Guide
This is a guide that details 7 of our favorite habits that we think you should create and add to your life. Winning in life has a lot to do with maintaining good and productive habits, and these are our Top 7.
3. The 7 Habits From Hell Guide
This is a guide that will go over 7 habits we think you should break first. These habits all have a terrible destructive impact on your life, whether you realize it or not, and you can break all of these with your Bad Habit Breaker Journal.
4. Top 3 Superachiever Quotes
This is a one-page download that you can print out or save in your phone so you can constantly draw upon these three quotes for inspiration when times get tough, and you need some motivation to keep going.
5. The Famous Daily Planner & Productivity Template
This is a one-page template that will help you be 10x+ as productive as you are now. This is a game-changing planning template that has helped our customers just as much as the journal and potentially even more.
6. The Ultimate Habit Breaking Checklist
This is a checklist that you can fill out and go through to help you determine whether you truly have broken your bad habit or not. Although in most cases, it will be very obvious, this checklist will help you know for sure, and is an invaluable part of the process.
7. Five Lifechanging Examples
This is a package of examples for how to use the journal to break certain habits. You will be shown how to break bad habits using the journal with exact examples that have worked for us and others in the past, and you can replicate these examples, or tailor them to your own goals.
The first week of emails are automatically generated but are actually helpful. They get you thinking about your habit and how to start moving forward, and the most important step I found is to address the problem and accept that a little help is needed.
I have been using the notebook for the month of June to help lose weight and it has worked so far. There is a lot of repetition in the system to keep writing down the same goal, but this is easy and quick to do and serves as a good reminder at the end of the day.
I have been trying out different pens each day and found that gel ink pens work best. They add a nice contrast to the cream colored paper and makes the task enjoyable to write out.
What I like most about this notebook is when you start out, there are 25 pages of information, inspirational quotes, and guides to help move you forward. You don’t need to reference anything online and it is all self-contained.
What I really don’t like is that the system recommends telling lots of people that you are breaking your bad habit. I am not sure my friends want to know how I am doing with my late-night snacking…
I’ll post an update at the end of June to this post to let everyone know how I did with the system and if it worked, or if I am going to ask for my money back…
INTERVIEW WITH MATT LARSEN THE CREATOR
I wanted to know more about the writer and creator of the journal so I reached out to Matt from Achievement Journals and he was quick to reply. Here are a few things I learned:
Me: How did you develop the journal in the first place? I know that we all want to break bad habits but what pushed you to help others with this notebook system?
Matt: I developed this journal based on the exercises that I have been using myself for years. I used to just print out the daily exercises on blank paper, and use them myself twice per day for several years, and had great success with breaking bad habits for myself. It has been many years since I have overspent, consumed caffeine, consumed alcohol, smoked anything, eaten sugar, eaten fast food and so on, and I quit all of these things through using the exercises. I planned on creating the journals for about three years before I actually did it. I get them from China because it just costs too much to have them printed in the United States. They would have to be like $200 each if I got them printed here, unfortunately.
The inspiration/method comes from a combination of things. The whole idea that "your bad habit is the cause of your pain, not the relief of it" is from a series of books called The Easy Way series by Allan Carr. I think we would probably be the number one affiliate for that book series as lots of our customers end up buying books from that author.
Other parts of the journal are basic self-help type concepts such as visualizing yourself as no longer doing your bad habit, accountability in the form of texting three people per day, giving yourself a good "why" and reason to quit by writing down all of the reasons, and so on.
The progress calendar is very effective for a lot of people as it is a visual way to see how far you have come.
I pretty much used all of these tools for years before just on blank paper or printed out before I created this journal. I decided to try and start selling it because it worked for me, and for some people close to me, so why not try and help everyone else too
Me: I like that you offer the guarantee on the notebook but can you share how many people request a refund?
Matt: Total, 1.77% of people request a refund. 454 out of 25644 customers have requested a refund.
I really wanted to remove the risk for people to try it, and I like the guarantee. I don't want to take people's money if it doesn't work.
Of that 1.77%, 79% of them requested a refund because it didn't work for them or they didn't like it, 8% requested a refund before they ever received the journal (ie. canceled their order), and then 13% of them returned the journal without using it at all (which is unfortunate).
Me: Can you tell me more about yourself and your background?
Matt: Hi. Yes sure. My name is Matt and I am in my late 20s. I split my time between living in Florida and living in Canada. I was born in Canada.
I have a few different very successful brands (multi-seven-figure plus revenue) that I either started or have a majority equity position in. I mostly take care of the advertising and marketing for these brands, and then have partners and/or employees to do the shipping, customer service, supply chain, etc.
I've worked at a hedge fund for most of my adult life/career, and still do.
I am an avid reader and combined many of the best concepts and ideas from different books as well as my own experiences to create the journal, and plan to create eight different versions in total, each focusing on a specific problem that can be solved (ie. breaking bad habits, weight loss, etc).
My two major life skills are data analysis (hedge fund) and advertising, and I really enjoy them both.
I'd say that if you can become a master of advertising, and can either create, source, or find high quality products to sell, you will be able to do very well in life regardless of your age, race, education, background, where you live, etc.
If you have any questions or have tried this journal please let me know your experience! Go check out the notebook at Achievement Journals.
Cheers,
Mike
As always, I paid full price for this notebook and have not received anything in return for writing this review.
