The Power of Habit

These ideas are again from the book titled The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  I just finished this book the other day and wanted to write some ideas about what I read so it helps stick in my mind.  Taking notes has always helped me remember things.  Writing things down in pen is even better but this will suffice so hopefully these ideas can help people who read my blog.

The main ideas from the last few chapters of the book are that change is possible.  Meaning, it is possible to change a habit and therefore change your life.  His appendix offers some practical ways to work on changing bad habits into good ones or just starting good habits period.  Here’s an excerpt:  “Experiments have shown that almost all habitual cues fit into one of five categories:

Location

Time

Emotional State

Other people

Immediately preceding action.”

I should back up here and explain the habit loop that he discusses throughout the book.  The habit loop is made up of 3 simple parts; Cue, Routine, Reward where routine is the habit.  Every habit, good or bad, has some type of reward, otherwise we wouldn’t do the habit.  It may be a destructive reward mind you, but in the mind of the one performing the habit it is a reward all the same.  Think about the nicotine hit that a smoker gets; that hit is the reward.

Back to the cues...those 5 categories help you identify what your cue is.  If you want to know why you mindlessly overeat, why other people keep with an exercise routine, etc., look for their cues and rewards.

For example, one cue I have for overeating is clearing my plate.  I’ve done this for as long as I can remember; I feel like I’m wasting food if I don’t clear my plate for some reason.  A better way would be to have the waiter put half my meal in a to go box before the meal, but I typically forget to do that and end up clearing my plate out of habit.  At home, a better way would be to simply use one of our smaller plates, but I’m usually still hungry afterwards and so I go back for seconds.  I also need to eat slower as I hear it takes about 20 minutes for food to digest and to feel full from your meal.