Book Review: The Power of Habit
Part of my plan for the year was including self development and reading more books. This is the first one I’ve finished this year – so here’s my first book review for you! I’ve heard a lot about The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and wanted to see if the whole book was as good as some of the snippets I’ve seen online. In this instance? Absolutely.
The Power of Habit is an incredibly well researched book with references you can look up at the end of the book, if you want to. You can tell Duhigg is a journalist as he backs up his statements with the proof we all want to see.
The book is broken down into 3 sections. The habits of individuals, the habits of successful organisations, and the habits of societies. There is also a really useful ‘Reader’s Guide to Using These Ideas’. This breaks down the key theories covered in the book and lets you set out a system to apply them to your own life!
This month I’m reading: Charles Duhigg
Throughout the book there are lots of incredible examples of people making life changing choices about their habits. People with extreme habits that absolutely crippled them, destroyed their lives. And the common theme is that these people come to a sudden, startling conclusion that they need to change something. And usually its something like stopping smoking, or getting to work on time.
“Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making. But they’re not. They’re habits.”
(Prologue)
The really interesting thing though, is that these often become what Duhigg calls keystone habits. For example; once someone stops smoking , they usually eat healthier, work out more, think positively and work towards their goals with vigour. So how do these people make this amazing change to a destructive habit? The key to the whole thing seems to be identifying what is actually at the root of the habit you want to break. What is the reward you’re getting out of it?
“habits as they are technically defined: the choices that all of us deliberately make at some point, and then stop thinking about but continue doing, often every day.” (Prologue)
Maybe you snack at your desk because you’re bored, so the reward is getting a bit of stimulation from your tastebuds. Or you procrastinate, so the reward is you escaping from your perfectionism by delaying completion of a task. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?! As you can see from the quotes above, habits are what our brains rely on to make daily life simple. We don’t have to think carefully each time we make a cup of tea or coffee because our brains know how we like it. We just do the same thing every time!
So we can’t get rid of a habit – it’s just the way our brains work efficiently to streamline our daily lives. What this book suggests is changing existing habits. You keep the cue – say feeling bored at work, but you change the routine by doing a crossword instead of snacking. Then you get the same reward of feeling stimulated.
In the section to help readers put this concept into place, Duhigg gives us a simple breakdown of the steps to take to reshape your habit. He calls it the ‘framework’. It calls for real self reflection, to understand the cue, routine, and reward involved in your current habit. Only once you have understood your existing (bad) habit, can you plan for changing it!
THE FRAMEWORK
Identify the routine.
Experiment with rewards.
Isolate the cue.
Have a plan.
The key is to keep your effective reward in place – but change the routine you have as a habit. You end up training your brain to look forward to the new routine like it did the old one. But now you have a healthy and useful habit rather than a destructive one!
Final thoughts:
This was a really good read. Dealing with non-fiction, especially when it includes so much research, can be tedious. But this book was engaging and interesting all the way through. Each chapter gave me something to think about and my brain was ticking over with all of the habits I could change!
We all have those habits we’d like to break – from smoking, to nail biting, to ignoring our gym memberships. This book gives a fantastic breakdown of how to make the change you really want to. Have you got a habit you want to change this year? Have you tried the framework from The Power of Habit? I’d love to hear what you think!
Love, Isobel x
If you enjoyed this post I think you’ll love The Food Diary: Baking Bread!
Photo by Fredrick Suwandi on Unsplash
