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Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg
Random House
February 28, 2012 / ISBN: 978-1400069286
Nonfiction / Self Help
Amazon
Reviewed
by Deborah Adams
Habits, it seems, are trickier and more insidious than we realized.
Haven't we all tried to break our bad habits and failed? Nail biting,
smoking, over-eating - these behaviors and others seem to beat us
every time. It turns out that trying to rid ourselves of bad habits
really is pointless; it's impossible to eliminate a habit, no matter
how much discipline, willpower, or desire we have.
You're no doubt thinking about the people you know who have stopped
engaging in habitual behaviors. Alcoholics give up alcohol and couch-potatoes
turn into fitness devotees. According to Charles Duhigg, author
of The Power of Habit, those old lifestyles may fade into
the background but they never disappear entirely - it's just that
new patterns have come to the front. Most of the time, this is a
very good thing. "Habits… emerge because the brain is
constantly looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices,
the brain will try to make almost any routine into a habit…."
This is why we don't have to constantly re-learn how to comb our
hair or drive a car.
But not all habits are created equal. "The habits that matter
most," writes Duhigg, "are the ones that, when they start
to shift, dislodge and remake other patterns." Duhigg calls
these 'keystone habits.' Exercise is an example of a keystone habit.
People who start exercising regularly often find that, without conscious
effort, they eat better, smoke less, and use credit cards less frequently.
Our habits are loaded with power. Who would have imagined that removing
food vendors from a plaza could prevent riots? Or that whether or
not we make our beds every morning could predict our chances of
losing weight?
Marketers, of course, are right on top of this. Products like air
freshener and toothpaste are staples in most homes, but that wasn't
always the case nor was it a coincidence that we, the people, suddenly
developed the habit of using these items. Carefully managed marketing
strategies instilled in us the habits that lead us to buy certain
products and to shop at particular stores. Yes, it is a lot like
mind control, and we are far more vulnerable than we like to believe.
The Power of Habit is an eye-opening and myth-blasting
tour of the scientific study of habit and addiction, but it isn't
a dry read. Not at all! Duhigg's writing style and his ability to
explain a fairly complicated subject in plain language with riveting
examples make The Power of Habit a downright page-turner.
Along the way, he gives us specific examples of how habits are formed
and how we can modify our own and others' behaviors to make habit
work for us. The appendix is a complete guide to helping us use
the information from the book to override almost any behavior.
There are hundreds of books that claim they'll help us change our
lives. The Power of Habit is the only one I've read that
really stands a chance of doing that.
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