A Look at The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
I need to be more organized.
I need to go to bed earlier.
I need to be better at following up with clients.
Sound familiar?
Identifying the bad habits we need to change is easy for most people. Give them a pen, paper, and a minute or so, and they’ll give you a list of 5-10 things that they wish they could change. And many of us try our best to make improvements on our own -- whether it’s starting every January with a fresh batch of resolutions or simply making another “diet starts Monday” epiphany.
If you’re looking for a book that will give you a step-by-step plan for eliminating those bad habits and instilling good habits into your life, “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg isn’t the book for you. While it’s plumb full of the ‘why’ behind habits, there’s little information on actually incorporating the lessons into your everyday life. A better listen than read, this book’s attempt to define ‘why we do what we do in life and business’ falls a little short.
The book’s main focus is the concept of cue-routine-reward; think lather, rinse, repeat but for your behaviors. We are all motivated by cues in our day-to-day lives, both positive and negative. When we are faced with those cues we automatically act in a way that will get us to the third step: reward!
The key to changing bad habits is to find new routines to replace bad ones. This is one of the reasons why things like nicotine gum work well for those trying to quit smoking. The cue is stress, the routine is chewing gum, and the reward is the same boost of nicotine that they used to get from a cigarette.
Heavy in research findings and examples of individuals and organizations that have incorporated habits into their success, this book will appeal to an intellectual crowd that is more interested in how the mind works and less interested in putting the ideas into action.
The examples used feature large corporations and it is hard to immediately see how the ideas can be transferred to a small business strategy. The concepts themselves are easy to understand thanks to the author’s (almost excessive) use of graphics reiterating the mantra: cue-routine-reward.
I don’t want to give a thumbs down to the book entirely. There were some interesting anecdotes and the overall concept holds true.
Have you ever wondered why Target’s marketing seems to be specifically directed at you and your preferences, or have you seen a friend overcome addiction using the AA approach and wondered what was behind it? Habits are at the root of so many things that we encounter on a daily basis and we don’t even realize it
Have you made any major efforts in changing your habits? Share in the comments below, or join the party on my Instagram and share there: https://www.instagram.com/katrina.widener/
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