The Power Of Habit
You can’t possibly call yourself a habit junkie and not
know this book. It’s THE book about habits. Published in 2012
by Pulitzer-prize winning author Charles Duhigg, this gem has
spent over 120 weeks on the various New York Times bestseller
lists.
The book was sparked by Duhigg’s fascination with the wit
of a U.S. army major in Kufa in Iraq, who nipped riots in the
bud by persuading the small town’s mayor to keep food vendors
out of large and growing gatherings – when people couldn’t fuel
their anger and energy with kebabs, as they usually did, they just
left. Tons of research and 8 years later, Duhigg published the
go-to book about habits.
Habits work in 3-step loops: cue, routine, reward. Habits
are your brain’s way of saving energy, so given you spend
around 6 of your 16 waking hours doing things you’re not aware
of, it might be worth understanding what happens here. Duhigg
discovered that at the root of all habits, like drinking your coffee
every morning, lies a simple 3-part loop. The cue is what
triggers you to do the habit, for example sitting down at your
kitchen table to have breakfast every morning at 7 AM.
The routine is the behavior you then automatically engage in,
which, for drinking coffee, might be to go over to your
coffeemaker, turn it on, and press the “large cup” button. Lastly,
you’ll receive a reward for completing the routine, such as the
rich smell of your coffee, it’s hearty taste and getting to watch
the steam rise from the cup as it sits on your kitchen table in the
sunlight (I really love coffee, can you tell?).
You can change your habits by substituting just one part of
the loop, the routine. Naturally, the more often you reinforce a
habit, the more embedded in your brain it gets. In case of the
coffee, you might crave it the second you sit down at your
kitchen table, and when you can’t have it that day, because the
machine broke, you’ll probably get very grumpy and buy one
later at work. The trick to changing a habit then, is to switch the
routine, and leave everything else in tact. Duhigg calls this the
golden rule.
Your most important habit is willpower, and you can strengthen
it over time in 3 ways. Not all habits are created equal and
Duhigg says willpower is by far one of the most important ones,
as it helps us do better in all aspects of life. Having been to the
moon and back in terms of willpower research, I don’t want to
tell you to eat right, sleep enough and exercise regularly. My
friend Colin is much better at that. Instead, here are 3
uncommon ways in which you can grow your total willpower
capacity over time:
1. Do something that requires a lot of discipline. For example
a tough wake-up regimen or strict diet will make
you constantly practice delaying gratification and thus give
you more willpower to exert throughout your day.
2. Plan ahead for worst-case scenarios. Even just thinking
about your boss yelling at you before it ever happens will
help you not loose your cool when it does.
3. Preserve your autonomy. Yesterday I learned
that autonomy was a major part of living a passionate life.
Today I learned that if you take it away, your willpower
also goes down the drain. When you’re assigned tasks by
someone else, which you must do, your willpower muscle
tires much quicker.
Focus on improving these important, big aspects of your life
over minor hacks, and you’ll develop great self-discipline in the
long run!
