THE POWER OF HABIT- BOOK REPORT

The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, scientifically explains why habits exist and how they can be altered. I enjoyed and could really wrap my head around these explanations. Duhigg presents a new supportive way of human nature and its potential. In a nutshell, The crucial key to exercising consistently, losing weight, being productive, succeeding, etc. is understanding how habits work. By grasping this new science, we can convert our businesses, communities, and lives for the better, as Duhigg states.

         After reading this book I now realize, all our life we have built massive habits.  Most of the things we do each day may feel to us that we are making decisions, but really they are habits based on past choices or decisions. Overall the littlest decisions we make each and every day, for example food we order, when to exercise,  and our thoughts have massive impact on every individuals sense of being. The most important and fascinating part of this book I found was how and why habits work. Since the brain is constantly looking for ways to save energy, it stores these habits to remember for the next similar instance to occur.

         Basically, the brain works in ways of rewarding and succeeding. For instance, waking up in the morning to your alarm, than getting up to brush your teeth, followed by a sensation of cleanliness or success. The Brain registers these senses and links the cue with the routine.  Eventually these types of actions become habit to everyday routines. This same scenario is explained with eating habits; weather or not an individual will eat one or two more cookies rather than walking away without eating any. The Power of Habit additionally explains why altering habits are so very difficult. Scientists clarify that we develop cravings for the rewards we have encountered various times in the past.  The easiest way to change habits is to change the routine to anything else, while still keeping the cue and reward equivalent.
         Related to our class, we discussed and overviewed many topics on impulsive decisions and self control. The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg explains in further detail our knowledge about why being able to understand how our minds work is important in order to have the most self control to break habits. Likewise, the class lectures informed us that impulsive choices are normally associated with conflicting outcomes. We learned a great example of this with drinking, when out being social, five beers every time becomes a habit which may lead to an alcohol addiction later on in life. In a nut shell the definition of self control we read about in class relates to The Power of Habit because self control is key when breaking or making any habits.