Book of the Month: The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
For Companioning Your Journey’s thirteenth Book of the Month, Charles Duhigg’s, “The Power of Habit”.
About the Author and Publication
Charles Duhigg hit the ball out of the park with their first ever book, The Power of Habit. Since the success of its’ release, he has published another title, which I am eager to pick up, and has yet another hitting the shelves next month. Although this was his first book, Charles has been writing for decades and has received acclaim as a journalist for The New York Times and for The New Yorker Magazine. Charles even won a Pulitzer Prize for his work. The Power of Habit started out as an opportunity for Charles to interview experts in the field of habit formation so that he could learn strategies to break some of his own habits that were getting in the way of his goals. Charles interviewed not only experts in the science of habits, but also individuals who have achieved remarkable success in their lives thanks in part to discipline and mastery of habits. This book felt like a very comprehensive read and deep dive into the topic without falling into the trap that many self-development books do of trying to tout a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, the book explains the how behind habits and encourages you to find unique ways to take control in your life.
Key Take Aways
Overall Premise
The Power of Habit focuses on how our brains develop habits and through understanding the why behind them, identifying ways that we can play an active role in the process to create new habits or extinguish old ones.
Auto-Pilot
Our brain has one ultimate directive and that is to keep us alive. This means avoiding any form of distress or potential harm. I am eternally grateful for this when it means I can enter survival mode when confronted by a grizzly bear, but it is far less helpful when it gets me to avoid the distress involved in doing the dishes. Even though these are clearly different levels of risk, our brain still tries to protect us from it and will return us to the habit of avoidance. Knowing that this is an automatic response might initially sound defeating, but if we allow ourselves to acknowledge why it is showing up, we can acknowledge that we are not in any danger and can lean into the distress to move towards our goals.
The Habit Loop
The brain forms habits and perpetuates the habit loop with three components: Cue, Response, and Reward. The cue is a stimulus that triggers a response. The response which comes up is most often the one that has been associated with a positive reward or that comes from a survival instinct. The author speaks to how we can influence the habit loop by impacting any of the three components. For instance, we can create a new cue to trigger habits we want to lean into or we can avoid/eliminate old cues that kept the habit going. Most often when people think about creating a new habit, they focus on changing or creating a new response such as starting a new routine. The last and most important component is impacting the reward. This is a critical piece because it is what encourages our brain to repeat the pattern in the future. We miss this portion because there is a belief that we “should” be doing the habit and that if it doesn’t come easily then we are “lazy” or “procrastinating”. That simply isn’t the case. What is actually missing is the piece that makes us want to replicate the behavior in the future. If you are trying to make a new habit stick, try working on adding a reward to help solidify the new loop.
You Can Strengthen Your Willpower One Habit at a Time
One of the topics that the author discusses is the lasting impact of this work. As we build specific habits, even if they are in different domains of our life, it increases our ability to impact the habit loop. The most important pattern we can build is not only in building a habit, but more importantly in exercising our willpower. You can regain control in your life by pushing past the initial feeling and response that our mind generates which might try to keep us in place. Getting in the habit of doing the hard thing and feeling the rewards that come with it can create a new cycle.
What Made this the Book of the Month
This read made the book of the month list for several reasons, but the one I find the most powerful is the way that it empowers readers to offer themselves compassion and understanding while moving towards affecting change in their lives. We often blame ourselves for our “bad habits” and at the same time kick ourselves for it not being easy to create radical change. While doing this, we overlook many of the positive things we do which impact ourselves and those around us. The author encourages the reader not to identify with the negative habit and offers them the opportunity to take a step back and look at how the habit was formed in the first place. What we do makes sense, even if we are not happy with the why behind it. Learning and understanding why we do what we do allows us to change the loop and create new patterns which align with our values. You have power and you can use that power to make lasting change.
Conclusion
If you are looking for an impactful read, look no further than Charles Duhiggs’ “The Power of Habit”.
What has been one of your most impactful reads? Are there any that you feel like more people should get their hands on? Let me know and I would be happy to read and review in a future post!
