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I submitted the final edits on the design for the book last week.
(If you’re just joining, I’m writing a book called Unhinged Habits.)
Now that it’s done, I’ve decided to give you an update on how it came to be and what I’ve learned so far.
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The genesis of Unhinged Habits
Traditional publishing takes about a year from final manuscript to release.
Once I turned in The Obvious Choice to HarperCollins, I called my agent to talk about ideas for the next book.
I wanted to write about my 8:4 seasonal way of living and how much it positively impacts my health, relationships, and work. As I spoke and she asked questions, we both knew it was a big idea.
Most modern self-help is rebranded Stoicism, Buddhism, or research. Fine, but those books have already been done well by Manson, Clear, Robbins, Holiday, et al.
These concepts, on the other hand, felt rich, new, and useful. The type of ideas that can only come from deep lived experience, exploration, and a tremendous amount of reading and introspection.
For 14 years, I’ve challenged both social and educational norms, accepting nothing as status quo. My entire adult life has been a search for a more exciting, purposeful, and meaningful life.
I’ve built businesses, lived in 10 countries, enrolled my kid in a school in Mexico, in Spanish, when he doesn’t speak the language, and he thrived. Heck, I even built the first-ever certification for a new field (online fitness training).
My agent and I both agreed that the timing is perfect for this book.
It’s 2026––doing work you hate and being surrounded by people who don’t light you up is dumb. We all have the tools we need. You can just do things. What’s missing are the mindset shifts, permission, and frameworks for our modern world.
Honestly, the idea was so big that it scared me. There’s a strange anxiety that comes with releasing work you believe is life-changing.
I can’t let that hold me back. Let’s start at the beginning.
Signing the book deal
To sell your next book to the same publisher, all they require is an option proposal. This can be as short as one page. Mine ended up being 28 pages.
I wrote it quickly. It exploded out of me. I could see how it came together from day 1. That’s never happened before.
My agent worked her magic on the proposal and we submitted it on Thursday, June 27 2024.
Friday midday, the publisher emailed my agent and said, “let’s chat Monday.”
My agent warned me they might not buy the book. She was prepared to fight for it. It’s rare for a big publisher to award a large book deal to an author before there’s sales data from his first book.
Monday rolls around. They get on the phone. I wasn’t there. Authors don’t join their agents on negotiation calls with publishers. I heard what happened next later.
“This is big. We want it.”
Matt said that. He’s a VP at HarperCollins.
They made a big offer on the spot. I accepted that day.
The book deal was signed on July 1st—only three weeks after I submitted the final manuscript for my last book. That velocity is virtually without precedent.
What happened next was a blur.
The cost of releasing two books so close to one another
Unhinged Habits will be released on January 27, 2026. That’s only one year and 13 days after my last book, The Obvious Choice, came out.
Looking back, I’m happy I moved so fast but don’t recommend it.
Because, while the turnaround was fast, it wasn’t quick.
I wrote Choice in three years. Unhinged Habits took more hours to write, but I did it in one year.
In that same time that I was supposed to be marketing Choice, writing Habits, and managing two businesses, my wife got pregnant and bed-ridden ill during her first trimester and one of our closest friends began chemotherapy for breast cancer.
With Alison ill, I added on caring for her, preparing meals, keeping the house tidy, and doing school pickups.
These two stories evolved as I was writing the book. And I ended up breaking them up into three interludes that intersect the book.
How they happened. What they mean. And how to prepare for the inevitable moment life unexpectedly kicks you in the teeth are all key ideas from the book I was writing that got battle-tested as I as writing it.
Last year was hard. I wouldn’t wish it on you. But you needn’t have wished for something to happen in order to be grateful that it did. The book’s stronger as a result. As am I.
People talk about work-life balance. I’ve never liked that. Balance is binary. Too precarious. If you’re in balance, it means that you can also be in imbalance. I prefer the term work-life harmony. A flowing state where you roll with the punches.
Expect the unexpected. Build tolerance to life’s intolerances.
The best way to deal with something unhealthy is to first become as healthy as possible. Make decisions today that your future self will thank you for when shit hits the fan. Because it will.
That last bit in italics is a direct quote from the book.
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Neither book’s content suffered from doing them both this fast.
What suffered was the marketing for The Obvious Choice. Because I was on deadline for UH when I was supposed to be marketing it, Choice didn’t get the attention it deserved. And the book launch bombed.
So why did I sign another book deal so quickly?
Because I had a big idea and wanted to get back to work.
Fortunately, I also think I’ve hit the timing just right. Unhinged Habits is dropping just as the entire world is going mad and people are questioning their path, purpose, and meaning because:
- Their calendar’s packed, yet they feel like they’re missing what matters.
- They’ve bought things meant to bring happiness, but the satisfaction didn't last.
- They suspect that they’re living someone else's definition of success rather than their own.
This book is a gloriously selfish activity
I’m not supposed to admit this to you, but here goes: The books that I write are books for me.
I write because it helps me understand myself better.
Writing Unhinged Habits has transformed me into a better father, husband, boss, friend, and grown-up son.
You see, I’ve explored a lot. Exploring every which way. From travel to education, music to sports, renting and owning.
And I’ve figured out some principles. Immensely helpful things. So much so, that where others seem to struggle and get burned out, I don’t feel those things. But I didn't realize how much it was transforming me as it happened.
Writing is how I connect the dots looking backwards. I walk through life blissfully aloof. Ask my wife. I never know what I’m doing. I rarely know what day it is, or month. I say yes to things without thinking them through. And I go all in. Then, I take what works, throw out what doesn’t, and make damn sure to learn from my mistakes.
There’s a few obvious things I’ve learned like how valuable your local community is.
Then there’s less obvious things like how we all know basically nothing and admitting our ignorance is the best way to make good decisions.
And then there’s some stuff we need to talk about more, like how necessary it is to categorize your friends so you stop wasting your time on those who don’t matter and optimize it with the few that do.
But the central theme of the book, and the crux of the title, is this challenging question:
What if being consistent isn’t actually the key to transformative growth?
Get a little better every day. Be consistent. Sure. I buy it. That’s nice. Looks good on a chart. But we’re human, you and I. Math that checks out rarely works reliably within the squiggly confines of our messy reality.
Lots of people are consistent, yet few get ahead. Have you thought about that?
I don’t know a single person who has achieved anything meaningful in work, family, or health based on pure consistency. In literally every case, there were bouts of almost (unhinged) intensity interspersed. Like cardio and weights, of course, it’s not a one-or-the-other thing—you need both.
Heck, even the guy who wrote the book about getting 1% better every day, which is a great book, used an absolutely unhinged period of intensity to market it. And many more of those unhinged periods of intensity to get the book across the finish line.
I’ll sum it up like this:
Consistency is for the maintaining. Intensity is for the gaining.
Unhinged Habits is a book about wanting a better life and going after it. Or be okay not having it. Both are fine. Just get out of the middle.
There’s still a long way to go.
The manuscript and design is done, but the heavy marketing lift is just beginning.
While not the end-all, be-all, the ultimate success of a book does depend a lot on how it does upon launch; specifically, preorders of the book.
And so, if any of this sounds exciting, interesting, or useful to you, please considering preordering Unhinged Habits today on Amazon. It’s available in all formats (hardcover, audio, and Kindle).
→ Click here to preorder Unhinged Habits
Most of all, thanks for being a part of the journey.
-Jon
