Book #49: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

I just happened upon this book in the library while I was trying to quietly peruse the shelves with Dane stampeding along behind me, and it was a total winner. I feel like I'd heard about it before at some point, which was why it caught my eye, and it was definitely an interesting read. It seemed to correlate a lot with 168 Hours, mostly because I just read that one too, and it's a lot about how we can improve our time and lives by changing bad habits and starting good ones. Duhigg follows the excellent non-fiction format of having a thesis, developing it, and proving it by providing numerous real-life examples that are interesting and easily applicable (like about Rosa Parks and Procter and Gamble and Target, etc.). And I think he does a great job of proving his thesis: that the key to doing anything you want to achieve in your life is to understand how habits work and to attack the problem by working that way. He argues that there is usually a cue that signals us to do the habit (like putting your shoes by your bed if you want your habit to be running in the morning), and a reward that comes from following it (the endorphin rush that comes from running), and if you figure out what the cue is or what the reward is, you can tweak them or the habit in order to make it more likely that you will follow through. I think Duhigg makes some really interesting points, and the examples and stories he provides are really compelling for his argument. I dog-eared some pages that I want to talk to Tommy about and I might even come back and add some more stuff from those later.