The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
by: Charles Duhigg

Did you know that Target knows when you are pregnant? Or that the memory loss victims in the movie 50 FIRST DATES could psychologically create new habits? This book breaks down the way our brains react to habits and cause us to do things methodically. We do every day things without thinking like the route you drive home, when (or if) you eat breakfast, or what you say when you hang up the phone. Our brains strive to create habits out of everything we do because then it frees up our brain to think about other things. In fact, 40% of what we do is habitual!

Duhigg talks through the habit loop that consists of a cue, a routine action or behavior, and a reward. There are tons of examples in the book, but one of my favorites was the story of how Febreze became a popular product by studying the habit loop of the house cleaning process. Taking habits a step further Duhigg applies the same concepts to noticing cultural patterns such as marketing techniques for selling shampoo. The bubble-filled orgasms in shampoo commercials are actually appealing to our neurological expectation that suds (cue) equates to clean (reward).

If you are like me, you have many bad habits that you want to get rid of. For me, those top 3 are: hitting the snooze button, nail biting, and the non-stop excuses for exercising. This book doesn’t suggest a step-wise solution to start/stop a new/old habit but it does cause you to be a bit more aware of the way you do things every day. I recommend this read: The Power of Habit!