How do habits form and how do we change them? How do we learn new habits? How do we replace bad habits?
My late night habit this week is reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.It's an accessible and riveting read, full of smarty pants research and technical discussion about things like the basal ganglia.
Highly recommend you form the same habit!
4 comments:
Cammy, in the "post-Jonah lehrer" world i'm more skeptical of writers making scientific anecdotes and research more accesible.
My main concern with these types of books (of which i read many)is how actionable they are. I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Ahh, yes, poor, misguided Jonah Lehrer. Which points to the credibility of the author, for sure. But I do not want to throw out these types of books for one bruised apple...
To your question of how actionable this is - jury's still out, but I do know I've been thinking crtically about my own cue, respond, reward cycle for my own habits. So if increased awareness = action, then so far, yes.
Just reading the title of the book struck me most. I do admit I really have struggles dealing with my habit, especially the bad ones. I already know that certain habit is bad, but I still keep on doing it. Eating is also a very daunting task to overcome for me. I hope this book will help me out.
I actually enjoyed very much the book, and at a certain level I found it actionable: for example, understanding the importance of triggers actually helped me to set up some small habits more successfully, and suppress some not-that-great habits. Disclaimer: I am a highly unorganized person, so have a lot of habit issues.
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