The Power of Habit — Book by Charles Duhigg (Recommendation)

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The Power of Habit — Book by Charles Duhigg was a delight to read and I will mention some details in this article about it. Staying positive amidst a pandemic is burdensome for sure however reading a book is one thing that keeps me sane.

The Power of Habit— Book by Charles Duhigg
The Power of Habit — Book by Charles Duhigg

About Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg (born 1974) is a Pulitzer-prize winning American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times and is the author of two books on habits and productivity, titled The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Smarter Faster Better (source: Wikipedia)

Habits can be used to create significant outcomes for individuals, organizations and societies, including losing weight, becoming more productive, influencing customer buying habits, and starting social movements.

In each chapter of the book, Duhigg covers examples and scenarios in vivid detail to help us see the cues, routines, rewards involved in habits formation and change. Besides the examples outlined in this summary, the book covers details of lab experiments and brain research, case studies on sports, hospitals, gambling, sleep-walking etc.

Who should read The Power of Habit — Book by Charles Duhigg?

If you are someone who has always been keen about knowing how habits form overtime i.e the science and theory behind it then this book is for you. What adds to its beauty is that it includes real life examples that are easier to relate as opposed to just theory.

By the end of it you will be able to realize how you ended up forming some habits and how you can change them if they are no longer adding to your cause.

“However, to modify a habit, you must decide to change it. 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”

Some excerpts that I found really insightful:

1- Pavlovian Marketing at Harrah’s entertainment

Harrah’s entertainment- the company that owned the casino- was known within the gaming industry for the sophistication of it’s customer tracking systems.

The company assigned players a ‘predicted lifetime value’ and software built calendars that anticipated how often they would visit and how much they would spend.

Casino employees were trained to encourage visitors to discuss their lives, in the hopes they might reveal information that could be used to predict how much they had to gamble with.

One Harrah’s executive called this approach “Pavlovian Marketing”

2- Education with Starbucks

Starbucks is now, in a sense, one of the nation’s largest educators. All of it’s employees, in the first year alone, spend at least 50 hours in Starbucks classrooms, and dozens more at home with Starbucks’ workbooks and talking to the Starbucks mentors assigned to them.

The company spent millions of dollars developing curriculums to train employees on self-discipline. Executives wrote workbooks that, in effect, serve as guides on how to make willpower a habit in workers’ lives.

Those curriculum’s are, in part, why Starbucks has grown from a sleepy Seattle company into a behemoth with more than seventeen thousand stores and revenues of more than $10 billion a year

3- Data analytics at Target

There is almost no more profitable, product-hungry, price-insensitive group in existence. It’s not just diapers and wipes. People with infants are so tired that they’ll buy everything they need- juice and toilet paper, socks and magazines- wherever they purchase their bottles and formula. What’s more, if a new parent starts shopping at target (American Retail Corporation), they’ll keep coming back for years

Conclusion on The Power of Habit — Book by Charles Duhigg

After reading The Power of Habit, I came away with a deeper awareness of how habits work. I also came to understand how habits can help us achieve massive change.

There is no bad habit powerful enough that you can’t change. Although eliminating it altogether would be really difficult, but it can definitely be replaced with better and much healthier ones. One can learn how to create or change an existing habit for the better.

“If you believe you can change – if you make it a habit – the change becomes real. This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be. Once that choice occurs – and becomes automatic – it’s not only real, it starts to seem inevitable…”

I think one of the best ways to spend time in these uncertain times is by dedicating a certain amount of time everyday in learning something new. And what better way to learn than reading books? It helps me in my journey of personal development each and every day.

You can check some other reviews here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-habit

Here is my review on Mick Ebeling’s book— Not Impossible which is another great read! https://reasonstolivefor.com/mick-ebeling-not-impossible/

What do you think about it? Does it seem like a book that you would want to read? Do let me know in comments below ????

The Power of Habit —
Book by Charles Duhigg

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