The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

 “People want to be in control of their lives.” Our desire to be in control is sadly almost always overpowered by our uncontrollable habits. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business details how habits are created, the power behind them, and how we can change them. Written by Charles Duhigg in 2012, this book is a powerful and interesting read that every person should keep in their library. I had seen this book recommended by a couple influential people that I follow. I decided to give it a shot. I ended up having a total of 51 highlights from a 439 page book and it took me about 2 weeks to read it. The book presented facts and information in an interesting, I’ll be it sometimes repetitive, manner. I took the repetition as a way to really grasp the information being presented. The basic idea that was presented was that a habit is composed of three parts: Cue, Routine, Reward. Every habit has these three components but not all are easily recognizable. It is important to understand where, when, how, and why habits are formed.

The brain is composed of many different lobes or areas and each area has certain influence over thoughts, behaviors, actions, functions… etc. A very simple way to look at the brain is to divide into two sections; our new brain and our old brain. The new brain is where all of our deep thought and analysis happens while our old brain (AKA reptilian brain) is where our basic instincts live. The base of the Reptilian Brain is a small ball of tissue called the Basal Ganglia. The basal ganglia will begin to acknowledge a repeated behavior and eventually store it. Once this happens the behavior has become a habit. This is a pretty rudimentary explanation of where and how it happens. The reason why we have habits is to reduce effort of the brain. When you are forced to think about something complex you can feel this sensation and fatigue but habits happen with such ease. For example, driving to work is a complex task but you can do it with barely any effort these days. This is because the task of driving to work has become a habit that is run by your reptilian brain. The brain creates these habits and relegates them to a more efficient but rigid part of the brain. The brain initiates this habit when it senses a cue which can be anything like sitting in your driver seat to sipping coffee.

Habits are composed of three components: the cue, routine, and reward. The cue is a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Luckily, habits are fragile which means they can be modified with just some cognitive effort. The hard part is recognizing what the components are in your habit.

The easiest part to identify is the routine. This is smoking that cigarette, eating that cookie, sitting on the couch after work. This is the most obvious aspect of the three components and is always the part that you desire most to change. Knowing the routine is not what is really going to help you though. You need to know what the cue and rewards are so you can recognize what triggers and continues your habits. The cue is the hardest thing to figure out so working on the reward aspect is the second step in habit modification. Once you have the ability to recognize you are stuck in a habit you can begin to experiment with rewards. Start out by testing a few different rewards like going for a walk if you get that urge to smoke a cigarette. You could also try doing 10 pushups or listening to a motivating speech on Youtube, look at videos of puppies, talk to a friend on the phone… Eventually you will find something that removes that urge to smoke, sit down after work, or eat that cookie. Once you have the routine and reward figured out you can work on the cue. What starts the whole habit? Cues almost always fit into one of five categories: location, time, emotional state, other people, or immediately preceding action. The easiest way to determine the cue is to have a notebook and immediately take notes once the habit is triggered. Answer every one of those questions and after a few cycles of the habit you should be able to see a pattern. One of those five categories will remain consistent.
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One of the most important parts of this book is getting across the point that YOU have the power to change a habit. You just needed to understand how and why habits exist but most importantly YOU need to make the choice to change. Changing a habit is not an easy process. You will feel burnt out and will struggle because you are fighting efficiency. Your brain wants to retain that habit but your conscious self does not want to. Your conscious self is the stronger part when you want or need it to be. That is how people sober up after years of substance abuse or lose and keep weight off after being extremely overweight most of their life. You must consciously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits’ routines, and find alternatives. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to use it