The Power Of Habit By Charles Duhigg
Raiquen Courcelle
When I was reporting my book, (#book-detail-link)The Power of Habit, this question was always at the back of my mind. High levels of willpower, studies have shown, is the single greatest predictor of success among businesspeople. More than intelligence, access to wealth or advanced educational degrees, willpower seems to determine whether people thrive or fail. My initial reporting on the science of habits had focused on understanding the neurological structure of habits - what is known as the habit loop.
It seems absurd to think that giving people a few pieces of blank paper might make a difference in how quickly they recover from surgery. But when the researcher visited the patients three months later, she found a striking difference between the two groups.
One patient, for example, had written, I will walk to the bus stop tomorrow to meet my wife from work," and then noted what time he would leave, the route he would walk, what he would wear, which coat he would bring if it was raining, and what pills he would take if the pain became too much.
Another patient, in a similar study, wrote a series of very specific schedules regarding the exercises he would do each time he went to the bathroom. A third wrote a minute-by-minute itinerary for walking around the block. As the psychologist scrutinized the booklets, she saw that many of the plans had something in common: They focused on how patients would handle a specific moment of anticipated pain.
To understand more about the science of habit formation, the habit loop and how habits work (and can be changed) within lives, companies and society, read The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business is a book by Charles Duhigg, a New York Times reporter, published in February 2012 by Random House. It explores the science behind habit creation and reformation. The book reached the best seller list for The New York Times, Amazon.com, and USA Today.[1][2][3][4] It was long listed for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award in 2012.[5]
The Habit loop is a neurological pattern that governs any habit. It consists of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. Understanding these components can help in understanding how to change bad habits or form good ones. The habit loop is always started with a cue, a trigger that transfers the brain into a mode that automatically determines which habit to use. The heart of the habit is a mental, emotional, or physical routine. Finally there is a reward, which helps the brain determine if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.[6] In an article in The New York Times, Duhigg notes, "The cue and reward become neurologically intertwined until a sense of craving emerges".[7]
According to Duhigg, craving drives all habits and is essential in starting a new habit, or reshaping an old one. Duhigg describes how Procter and Gamble used research on the habit loop and its connection to cravings to develop the market for Febreze, a product that eliminates bad odors, to make a fortune.[7]
The Golden rule of habit change helps stop addictive habits and replace them with new ones. It states that if you keep the initial cue, replace the routine, and keep the reward, change will eventually occur, although individuals who do not believe in what they are doing will likely fall short of the expectations and give up. Belief is a critical element of such a change, though it can be structured in a number of ways including group settings. Often people who join groups like accountability groups are better off than those who act alone as individuals. Charles Duhigg used several examples to illustrate his argument, including the case of Bill Wilson, a recovering alcoholic whose newfound faith in Christ led him to create Alcoholics Anonymous. In the book, he also discussed "willpower" and its role in creating a habit.
A keystone habit is an individual pattern that is unintentionally capable of triggering other habits in the lives of people. Duhigg wrote about the company Alcoa, and how CEO Paul H. O'Neill was able to raise the company's market capitalization by $27 billion by targeting safety in the work environment. O'Neil said, "I knew I had to transform Alcoa, ... [b]ut you can't order people to change, that's not how the brain works. So I decided I was going to start by focusing on one thing. If I could start disrupting the habits around one thing, it would spread throughout the entire company."[8]
In February, 2020, Charles Duhigg partnered with VitalSmarts, a corporate training company, to release The Power of Habit Training. The one-day course teaches people the science of habit formation introduced in the book. Learners are taught skills for recognizing the behaviors they should change and how to make new behaviors stick by manipulating the habit loop to work in their favor. The course is offered in live, virtual, and on-demand formats and is taught in public workshops both online and around the world.[9]
A habit is tough to start and tougher to break, or so they say. In The Power of Habit, it's time to put tough in the grave and reshape your life with new habits, starting with a deeper understanding of what a habit actually is.
According to Duhigg (investigative reporter, New York Times), if people can understand how behaviors became habits, they can restructure those patterns in more constructive ways. He presents information on habit formation and change from academic studies, interviews with scientists and executives, and research conducted in dozens of companies. Three sections deal with the neurology of habit formation in individuals, the habits of successful companies and organizations, and the habits of societies and tough ethical issues. Duhigg offers a fascinating analysis for the college-educated reader. [See Prepub Alert, 9/11/11.]
According to this instructional text for readers habituated to unhelpful ways, changing those bad habits for good habits isn't rocket science--it's brain science. New York Times investigative reporter Duhigg demonstrates how automatic behavior, good or bad, can grow from a repeated decision that gets lodged in the basal ganglia. The result is a fixed loop of cue, routine and reward. Animal trainers are already familiar with this information. For improvement, the trick is to keep the cue and reward, but change the routine. The belief that acquiring a new "keystone habit" can really be achieved is necessary, and that's why support groups, like AA, are valuable. To clarify his points, Duhigg offers some simplistic diagrams with many cautionary stories of surgeons, baristas, gamblers, sex addicts and football coaches, as well as the selling of toothpaste, aluminum and room deodorizers. Along with tales of paragons of corporate management, we learn how supermarkets are arranged, how Target stores target consumers, how Marin Luther King Jr. managed the Montgomery bus boycott and how Rick Warren organized his monumental Saddleback Church. Even with such varied exemplars, the skilled narrative remains accessible. Unlike other exhortations with titles that promise empowerment, this admonitory entry is supported by interviews, neurological studies and empirical histories. Copious notes and a "Reader's Guide to Using These Ideas" are appended. For self-help seekers, a more convincing book than most.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle
We are what we repeatedly do. This quote really hits the nail on the head. When you want to achieve any dream in your life, or want to change yourself, or design for a life according to your true values, you start with you. With your habits.
He visits laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work, and wherein our brain they reside. He writes about the right habits that were crucial for Michael Phelps to become the best swimmer in history.
In the second part, he dissects the habits of successful organisations. This part is highly entertaining if you are into big business. He deconstructs what habits big managers implant in companies, such as Us Steel or Ford, that separated them from their competitors.
In the third part of the book, he talks about how habits can change entire societies and cultures and discusses if free will exists at all if we are all controlled by the automated habits that we do each day.
What was the first thing you did this morning after you got up? Did you check your phone? Did you hop in the shower, checked your mail? Did you grab a banana or a doughnut from your kitchen table? Before you left your house to go to your work or university, did you brush your teeth before you took a shower or after? What was the route you took to your destination? When you arrived at your desk, did you first chat with your co-worker? Did you recheck your phone? Are you eating a kebab for lunch or a salad? When you get home, where did you put your jacket? What did you do with your shoes? Did you hit the light switch with your left or your right hand? Did you walk straight to your fridge or to your couch? Where did you put your keys? Back into your pocket or on a shelf?
When you took a dump, did you have to think a lot about what to do next? No, right? You automatically reach for the toilet paper, and after you go to the sink, you do not have to think about washing your hands, it is automatic. Ingrained in you, or as I prefer to say; you act out of habit.
All of the behaviour above are done without a lot of thought. They are habits. According to a study in 2006, researchers at Duke University found out that more than 40% of the behaviour we perform each day, is not actually as a result of us deciding consciously, but of habit.(1)
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