Habit, Ritual, and Well-being with Michael Norton
Unlock your day's hidden potential. Harvard’s Michael Norton explains how freelancing simple, even ridiculous rituals—from clinking silverware to morning coffee—transforms mundane habits into vital anchors for emotional resilience. Discover how these social signatures move you beyond mere automation to truly animating your professional and personal life for flourishing.
Experience the Event
Michael Norton is a behavioral scientist, professor and author of The Ritual Effect: Unlocking the Extraordinary Power of the Ordinary. Listen in for a conversation about practical connections between habit, ritual, and well-being.
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MoreMeet the Speaker: Michael Norton
Michael Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He holds a B.A. in Psychology and English from Williams College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University. Prior to joining HBS, Professor Norton was a Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
He is the author of the book, The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions. He is also the co-author – with Elizabeth Dunn – of the book, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending.
His research has been the answer to Final Jeopardy and has been parodied by the Onion. In 2012, he was selected for Wired Magazine’s Smart List as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World.” His TEDx talk, How to Buy Happiness, has been viewed more than 4.5 million times.
The Ritual Effect
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.
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Dr. Michael Norton: The Ritual Effect
Harvard Business School professor Dr. Michael Norton joins On Leadership to share how rituals can be identified and used as a tool for all of us in our personal and professional lives. Dr. Norton explains the difference between rituals, habits, and compulsions, discussing how elite performers like athletes and celebrities often have elaborate pre-performance rituals that help them feel more prepared to perform. Dr. Dorton describes how rituals are often used to provide a sense of control and reduce anxiety, but can become compulsive and interfere with one’s goals if taken too far.
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The Calming Power of Rituals
Wall Street Journal Article: Don’t just tell yourself to calm down: Adopting a routine for stressful moments—as many top athletes and performers do—can measurably reduce your agitation.
To read the full article, click here.