Anne Aylward

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit is an in-depth examination of how and why humans have evolved habits as a way of life and the book’s revelations will both surprise and empower you. The carefully presented analysis of the cause and the function of habits will help you understand how they are formed and why we can find ourselves slaves to these habits. Armed with this deeper insight the author will guide you through strategies to enable you to take control of your bad habits and give you a framework from which to form new, more beneficial habits. 1. The Habit Loop – how habits work We all admit that we have some bad habits that we would rather be without and yet old ingrained habits can be frustratingly hard to kick. How many times have you made the New Year’s resolution to get on top of old habits and change the way you do things? And again next New year’s. And again the year after. The same old habits. We realise that there must be some way to take control over our own weaknesses but most of us need a helping hand to get started. That is why The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is relevant to all of us. The well-structured chapters guide us through the maze of misinformation about our habits to learn the true underlying theory behind the formation of those habits and how we can overcome them by adopting new behaviors. It is important to explore how your habits are structured in order for you to evaluate their hold over your behavior. In this chapter the anatomy of a habit is broken down into it’s three components: the cue, the routine and the reward (result). When you can understand the cycle of a habit you are in a stronger position to take stock of your own and analyze which habits you have are destructive and need modification and which ones in fact prove useful. In order to take control over these destructive habits, you need to identify what initiates or triggers the behavior. Duhigg discusses strategies for recognising these cues and how to implement this knowledge to modify or even break habits you are not happy with. We all want to combat unwanted old habits and Duhigg guides us through the process of consciously recognizing the specific cues and rewards that must be disrupted or replaced. 2. The Craving Brain – how to create new habits This chapter explores the nature of the cues that trigger your habits and reveals that the fundamental cue for habits is craving. The author’s explanation of the insidious manner in which cravings influence your behavior is explained in depth and in clear, concise language that we can all take on board. Armed with new knowledge, you can devise strategies to circumvent the grip a habit has on you if you can unravel the craving that initiates it. We learn how a specific craving actually anticipates the reward (the result of the habit behavior) and once you understand this feed-back loop, you can choose to derail the cue-routine-reward cycle and get a head start on eliminating any habit you have been wanting to kick. We all know that old habits can be stubbornly ingrained and prove difficult to avoid but once you can recognise the cravings and cues that drive your habit you are in a strong position to remove or derail those cues and circumvent that behavior. On the other hand, for those of us who wish to encourage the formation of beneficial new habits, your new understanding of the habit cycle is a powerful tool to enable you to set up a suitable cue and the consequent reward, for example taking up exercise classes or going for a regular run. You will learn how to create the desired reward and design the cues that initiate that activity response and reinforce it with repetition to establish a new habit. 3. The Golden Rule of Habit Change – why transformation occurs We need to firmly establish the real reason why our unwanted habits prove so difficult to quit. This chapter guides us to uncover the actual underlying stimuli responsible for why the habits occur in the first place. Without asking the deeper questions you may incorrectly assume that certain behaviors are initiated by obvious cues. We are working hard, we go to the fridge and over-indulge in something tasty. But was it actually hunger that initiated these actions? Was a craving for food the cue that set off the action? Was food the reward you really wanted? The author gives us strategies to assist in revealing the real cues that set off our craving for the reward. Ask yourself the questions. Dig deep and be honest with yourself. He outlines proven methods to apply in order that we may truly understand the nature of our habit so we can take control of it and eventually conquer it. So, was it hunger that lead you to indulge in snacking? Or was it in fact a distraction from boredom? Or was it “comfort eating” as a response to some deep-seated anxiety issues? The book provides a framework for analyzing the true underlying cues that initiate unwanted, ingrained behaviors and by understanding the real cause and effect relationship we are in a stronger position to be able to interrupt, modify or completely eliminate the cycle. In fact, Duhigg reveals how habits can be modified without even needing to change the cues and the rewards because these can be deep-seated and ingrained, but instead by merely modifying the routine actions that the cues trigger. For example, if we suffer anxiety issues for example, this cue may have been triggering excessive alcohol consumption or perhaps high-calorie food intake, if we replace the destructive activity with something else that alleviates the sensations of anxiety we get the same result – comfort or a feeling of wellbeing. Instead of that cream cake or bottle of rum we attend a prayer meeting or join a sporting club for companionship and enjoyment. By employing this strategy the result is the same, the alleviation of the feelings of loneliness or anxiety. The cue was the same. Only the routine (the actions) stimulated by the cue has changed. And in this way we can all learn to modify our behavior and turn a bad habit into a good habit. 4. Keystone Habits – which habits matter most The author guides us to explore proven strategies for magnifying our chances of success in the quest to modify or eradicate unwanted habits which at first appear insurmountable. Examples of some of the most difficult challenges you might face include habits surrounding addictions like smoking or unhealthy eating behavior. He reveals the benefits of keystone habits which studies have shown can substantially accelerate your success curve. You can initiate a new, positive habit by starting to keep a daily food consumption diary – this then becomes a habit and is a powerful tool in itself to aid people in discovering where they are going wrong and analyzing areas where they can easily make positive improvements. This may appear to be a small habit and yet its benefits can prove far-reaching. Following these methods, we can all be enriched by the evolution of new, healthy habits with small wins that lead to further small wins that accumulate when repeated and power a culture of change from destructive to supportive habits. 5. Starbucks and the Habit of Success – when willpower becomes automatic We can all benefit from a helping hand at some time in our lives. None of us have all the answers all of the time. In this book, Charles Duhigg outlines proven methods that lead us to a better understanding of our most deep-rooted habitual behaviors. With these newly acquired insights, we are in a better position to understand our own condition and apply the strategies he recommends. In this chapter, Duhigg investigates the role of willpower in the process of arming individuals with the weapons they can employ in their battle to conquer destructive habits. We learn that willpower is critical to success in all aspects of our lives and he clearly shows how successes in one arena leads to successes against other challenges. This new understanding adds another dimension to our struggle and eventual success in modifying or eliminating unwanted habits. The strength we gain from harnessing our own willpower is another keystone habit we can add to our arsenal. 6. The Power of a Crisis – how leaders create habits through accident and design It may come as a surprise to realise that unwanted habits are not just the bane of individual humans, they are also widely entrenched in the corporate arena. Duhigg leads us through the maze of processes and practices that can be identified in the every day routines dictated by businesses and organisations to their staff at every level in order for each cog in the wheel to understand what is expected of them in performing their duties on a daily basis. Each individual performs their role without questioning the logic or wisdom behind the methodology they have been taught to follow. Instinctively they realise that to question the “establishment” may prove detrimental to their career. We learn that workers rely on the routines dictated by their workplace to guide their daily activities, enabling them to function more smoothly without having to stop and question what comes next throughout their work shift. However, at different levels in the organisation and between different departments all trying to achieve success and recognition a pervasive state of conflict can grow. He reveals that some intrenched work routines can prove counter-productive and are often the source of conflict and inefficiencies in the workplace. Studies have shown how a business may have to reach crisis point before the leaders are forced to confront their business practices and rectify those aspects that are proving destructive. To turn around a culture of negativity or inefficiency within a corporation or organisation can often be achieved with the implementation of new routines that will become “habits” that the workplace can follow to achieve greater success and healthier outcomes. The outcome is the creation of a new set of behaviors that can be adopted within the organisation in order to ease or avoid conflict between themselves and focus on the growth of the organisation as a whole. 7. How Target Knows What You Want Before You Do – when companies predict (and manipulate) habits This chapter opens up our eyes to the methods used by big business to harness our consumption habits. We are all aware of our own individual preferences when frequenting shopping centres or buying online. Duhigg challenges us to take a deeper look at our typical buying practices and analyze how much of our behavior is carefully thought through and how much is simply habitual. He points out that corporate entities have already done that thinking for us, but entirely for their own benefit. They have tracked our buying histories and from this behavior they have fashioned their strategies to present offers they already know are appealing to us. Big business strongly relies upon our personal habits to bring about the result they are seeking – making more sales. We all need to become more aware of how predictable our consumption habits make us and adjust our buying behavior to combat the onslaught of psychological persuasion tailored specifically to each one of us. The proliferation of high-tech avenues of consumption now common place for individuals in this modern era have given businesses a fertile insight into to our deepest, most ingrained habitual preferences. They view what we purchase online, which holidays we select to research, what type of vehicles we choose to look at and from all of our activities online they can deduce what milestone stages in life we have reached. In this way they can analyze our habits and send us carefully crafted offers that have a greater chance of being successful. For them. 8. Saddleback Church and the Montgomery Bus Boycott – how improvements happen From the exploitation of individual consumers we move on to the results of social movements initiated by the habits of a society coming together. Duhigg bids us to examine how humanity acts as a whole in the face of adversity or persecution. We are all individuals and this book has shone a light on how our own habits can dictate our daily behavior, sometimes in a destructive way but often in a healthy, positive way. However, we don’t exist in an isolated bubble, we are all interacting daily with our fellow man and we each and every one of us are contributing to the progress of society as a whole. So we need to examine how this individuality influences the identity that our communities embrace. In this chapter we learn how the evolution of our collective social conscience can convert the destructive habits of societies into a positive force that instigates a shift in communal values for the better of all within it. Successful social movements include examples like the abolition of segregation and the empowerment of women as contributors to society. Here a population makes a conscious decision to cast off deeply ingrained cultural habits and replace them with new, progressive habits that move the community forward. This new set of rules that modifies a community’s behavior begins at the level of the individual. Duhigg guides us through the process of change and we begin to understand how a person reacts to the adverse circumstances of a fellow human and how habit urges the person to support the victim and seek affirmation from others to offer the same support. We see how individuals rally to a cause due in part to the habit of people to work together towards a common positive goal. It may that we all desire to see justice done, it may be that we all feel better if we can bring about the eradication of inhumanity in all its forms. This hard-won satisfaction we enjoy is the result of the initial cue that elicits the actions to bring about that success (reward). The successful social movement can bring about enduring change in the psyche of the people. Community leaders react to the people’s revolution by handing down palatable new behavior models - new social habits to guide us forward. Now society as a whole embraces the improved set of behaviors which dictate how that community collectively behaves in the future. 9. The Neurology of Free Will – are we responsible for our habits? We are confronted with a moral dilemma when we ask ourselves the question – if our deeply ingrained habits result in actions that cause harm to others – even unintentionally – are we responsible for our actions? Duhigg helps us examine the depth of control that habits have over our reflexes and we ask ourselves if our actions are performed automatically, without us consciously thinking them through first, then how can we be held responsible if the outcome is destructive? Have any of you responded instinctively to a perceived threat? A friend sneaks up on you from behind, a playful prank to startle you, and at the last second you lash out without thinking but you have caused injury to your friend as a result. Was that instinctive response the behavior of a habit designed to protect you from perceived danger? Can this be argued in court in your defence? If you run up gambling debts due to gambling habits that you have struggled to control or overcome but have failed to succeed, are you morally responsible for those debts? Do we point the finger at the gambling establishments which constantly employ insidious and irresponsible tactics to lure gamblers and encourage their habit? If so, are the casinos in fact morally responsible for those debts? In this case, the individual is aware they have a bad habit and have succumbed to it as opposed to the friend who lashes out instinctively when surprised by a mate who sneaks up on them. Duhigg asks the hard questions and encourages each of us to analyze the consequences of our own worst habits. Should we square our shoulders and accept the responsibility of our actions even if we believe they are dictated by engrained behavioral responses rather than premeditated thought processes? Armed with your new understanding of the anatomy of your habits – the cue-routine-reward cycle – identified by Charles Duhigg, we can implement the strategies revealed by this book. We need to consciously unravel each part of the cycle and recognize the craving that initiates the behavior in order to intervene in that pathway and instigate change or modification of the ensuing behavior. Isolate the cue, identify the routine behavior it triggers and test alternative rewards that will modify the course of that behavior for a better outcome. You may not be able to remove the cravings but you can teach yourself to respond to them in a healthier or more positive manner. Repetition is shown to have the best results, repeat your interventions often enough start to build an improved behavior response to the cues and cravings that you have identified. Knowledge empowers you to take control of your unwanted habits and mould them toward better outcomes.