The Hard Break: The Case For The 24/6 Lifestyle
Aaron Edelheit
IdeaPress Publishing (May 2018)

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” Warren Buffett

I selected the Buffett observation to serve as the subject of this brief commentary because it refers to patterns of behavior that most of us adopt, consciously or unconsciously. Often, these routines define and eventually control what we do as well as when and how we do it. James O’Toole calls it “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”

This is what William Wordsworth has in mind:

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

Aaron Edelheit explains, “My goal in writing this book is to change the way people view and experience their modern lives. I will offer a different perspective and concrete guidelines that can make people more productive at work, bring them greater happiness, save their marriages, and improve the quality of their lives.”

How? Edelheit recommends taking a weekly “hard break” or Sabath: not just resting or sleeping all day” but, rather, “doing something different that will allow you to test your brain and to potentially achieve some higher insight or understanding.”

I wholly agree with Edelheit that bad habits can be eliminated and good habits strengthened, that “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom” can be rejected, and that — over time, we can develop a lifestyle that helps to accelerate personal growth and professional development. The break will be “hard” in terms of difficulty and therefore must also be hard in terms of resolve.

Aaron Edelheit offers a cohesive and comprehensive program by which to achieve and sustain that hard break. For those in need of his guidance, this book could prove to be one of the most valuable they ever read.