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.
The Power of Habit Summary
Habits are a simple action loop that consists of a cue, a routine, and a reward. For example, waking up in the morning might be the cue that drives the routine of brushing our teeth, which yields the reward of having a clean and refreshed feeling in our mouth.
The habit loop is driven by cravings. For instance, we might crave the feeling a clean and refreshed mouth, which will lead us to go through the routine of brushing our teeth when we get the cue of waking up. To understand and change our existing habits, in addition to creating new ones, it’s essential we understand the cue, routine, reward habit loop.
Habits are hard-wired into our brains. So while it would be nice to be able to erase this hard-wiring, it’s not possible. So we have to be intentional about changing our bad habits into good ones, rather than focusing on eliminating the bad ones from our system. The Power of Habit!
If we want to change our habits, we should keep the cue and reward the same, but change the routine. For example, imagine that we smoke a cigarette every time we drink coffee in the morning. The coffee is the cue, smoking a cigarette is the routine, and the high we get from the cigarette is the reward.
To change this behavior, we need to first consciously choose to do so and then identify the cues and rewards around the routine we would like to change. For instance, we can replace the smoking a cigarette routine with something else when we drink our morning coffee. The Power of Habit!
We might, for example, do a short exercise routine after we drink our coffee that releases endorphins and gives us a high that feels as good as the high from cigarettes.
We also are more likely to get better sleep and feel happier due to the endorphins that are released from exercise.
Collectively, these changes will likely make us more successful in our personal and professional lives. If you want to improve your life, identifying keystone habits that move you in the direction you want to go is a great way to do so.
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About the Author
Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times, currently writes for The New Yorker Magazine and is the author of two books on habits and productivity, titled The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Smarter Faster Better.
