NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Wall Street Journal • Financial Times
A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.
Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.
An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.
What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.
They succeeded by transforming habits.
In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.
Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.
At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.
Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.
The Power of Habit
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Praise for The Power of Habit
“Entertaining, an enjoyable book…a serious look at the science of habit formation and change.” —New York Times Book Review
"Duhigg brings a heaping, much-needed dose of social science and psychology to the subject, explaining the promise and perils of habits via an entertaining ride that touches on everything from marketing to management studies to the civil-rights movement… a fascinating read.”—Newsweek Daily Beast
“A fascinating exploration of our pathologically habitual society — we smoke, we incessantly check our BlackBerrys, we chronically choose bad partners, we always (or never) make our beds. Duhigg digs into why we are this way, and how we can change, both as individuals and institutionally.” —The Daily
“Charles Duhigg’s thesis is powerful in its elegant simplicity: confront the root drivers of our behavior, accept them as intractable, and then channel those same cravings into productive patterns. His core insight is sharp, provocative, and useful.”
—Jim Collins, #1 bestselling author of Good to Great and Built to Last
“The Power of Habit is not a magic pill but a thoroughly intriguing exploration of how habits function. Charles Duhigg expertly weaves fascinating new research and rich case studies into an intelligent model that is understandable, useful in a wide variety of contexts, and a flat-out great read. His chapter on ‘keystone habits’ alone would justify the book.”
—David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
“Charles Duhigg masterfully combines cutting-edge research and captivating stories to reveal how habits shape our lives and how we can shape our habits. Once you read this book, you’ll never look at yourself, your organization, or your world quite the same way.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of #1 New York Times bestselling Drive and A Whole New Mind
From the Hardcover edition.
“Entertaining, an enjoyable book…a serious look at the science of habit formation and change.” —New York Times Book Review
"Duhigg brings a heaping, much-needed dose of social science and psychology to the subject, explaining the promise and perils of habits via an entertaining ride that touches on everything from marketing to management studies to the civil-rights movement… a fascinating read.”—Newsweek Daily Beast
“A fascinating exploration of our pathologically habitual society — we smoke, we incessantly check our BlackBerrys, we chronically choose bad partners, we always (or never) make our beds. Duhigg digs into why we are this way, and how we can change, both as individuals and institutionally.” —The Daily
“Charles Duhigg’s thesis is powerful in its elegant simplicity: confront the root drivers of our behavior, accept them as intractable, and then channel those same cravings into productive patterns. His core insight is sharp, provocative, and useful.”
—Jim Collins, #1 bestselling author of Good to Great and Built to Last
“The Power of Habit is not a magic pill but a thoroughly intriguing exploration of how habits function. Charles Duhigg expertly weaves fascinating new research and rich case studies into an intelligent model that is understandable, useful in a wide variety of contexts, and a flat-out great read. His chapter on ‘keystone habits’ alone would justify the book.”
—David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
“Charles Duhigg masterfully combines cutting-edge research and captivating stories to reveal how habits shape our lives and how we can shape our habits. Once you read this book, you’ll never look at yourself, your organization, or your world quite the same way.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of #1 New York Times bestselling Drive and A Whole New Mind
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Charles Duhigg is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards, and was part of a team of finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He is a frequent contributor to This American Life, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Frontline. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids.
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By MarkyMark
Format:Hardcover
I often buy my books based on reviews from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca as it is a fairly good reflection of the quality of the book, but this one is not the case. The beginning chapters held my interest, but it started to wane in the 2nd half when they started talking about corporations. This is because I think too much of the performance of the corporations is tied to habits as if the causal effects were like billiard balls. There are simply way too many factors why companies succeed and/or fail and trying to pinpoint it to a particular habit seems too sensational and convenient.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By fastreader
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So if you are wanting a different result you have to change what you are doing. Or else there is that whole insanity thing staring you in the face.
In the Power of Habit the author Charles Duhigg links to the insanity (se above) of people expecting to change an outcome without changing the input or process. In the book these three points in the process are called Cue - Routine - Reward.
Simple, yet complex. As in any endeavour to deconstruct or reverse engineer anything to do with humans, the devil is in the details. What looks like something simple upon first observation, becomes increasingly complex as you peel away the layers. Humans are emotional and non linear. Plus just to make life interesting, and it does, we all sing along to a different playbook. One that is created by who you are, who your relatives are, who you run into in life, karma (had to throw that one in), your education and how you use all this to problem solve.
The Cue, Routine, Reward trilogy is an attempt to simplify the process and it works. The author gives us examples where changes to the routine can have sometimes dramatic changes. Sometimes the changes to the routine are small and sometimes they are large.
The author goes further in that he starts with humans and then moves onto organizations and societies using the same trilogy of cue, routine, and reward.
For anyone who wants at least a small chance of understanding why we do what we do, why organizations and society acts as it does this book will be insightful and instructive.
In the Power of Habit the author Charles Duhigg links to the insanity (se above) of people expecting to change an outcome without changing the input or process. In the book these three points in the process are called Cue - Routine - Reward.
Simple, yet complex. As in any endeavour to deconstruct or reverse engineer anything to do with humans, the devil is in the details. What looks like something simple upon first observation, becomes increasingly complex as you peel away the layers. Humans are emotional and non linear. Plus just to make life interesting, and it does, we all sing along to a different playbook. One that is created by who you are, who your relatives are, who you run into in life, karma (had to throw that one in), your education and how you use all this to problem solve.
The Cue, Routine, Reward trilogy is an attempt to simplify the process and it works. The author gives us examples where changes to the routine can have sometimes dramatic changes. Sometimes the changes to the routine are small and sometimes they are large.
The author goes further in that he starts with humans and then moves onto organizations and societies using the same trilogy of cue, routine, and reward.
For anyone who wants at least a small chance of understanding why we do what we do, why organizations and society acts as it does this book will be insightful and instructive.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had high expectations for this book. I did get some insights but my interest stopped midway. A main problem with this 'popular science' genre can be captured by the ratio of stories to substance. The author, no doubt an accomplished writer, is at his best when telling stories. He is a good writer and is able to make abstract ideas accessible. However, when it comes to substance, there is little new in this book. Notions such as reinforcement, conditioning and routines have been around since the 1940s. Also, the author ignores or simplifies many things about habits such as their creative role, the way they relate to beliefs, surprises and social interaction and on. We also know that habits are not completely mindless and do not require repetition to exist. I do not admire this genre although I can see how it may address some readers' needs. I wish we get rid of this habit and have instead books with a more balance between wisdom and folklore.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read
A very interesting read, ending up in my top favourites easily. Very cool studies are included to back up the information. I will read it again.
Published 15 days ago by MR DARIN GERMYN
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful.
What's been my problem has been dealt with in this book. After you read this book, you feel you have more control over your life.
Published 1 month ago by Kamal Maissami Fard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very interesting
I would recommend this book to anyone trying to make some changes in their lives...This book will give you another view on your habits and you can tweak them... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Harry Beckett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Change
I think that if you can internalize this information and work on new habits..it can dramatically change your life. I'm starting slow, but I am beginning to crave... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Laurie Saukko
5.0 out of 5 stars
fascinating
Well researched and insightful. It actually changed my life and the way I look at news events and the behaviour of friends and acquaintances. Read more
Published 5 months ago by zanderary
4.0 out of 5 stars
helpful advice
Some very interesting research going on about our habits - mostly by advertising companies it seems! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Phantom Heart
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weak
Looking to create/adjust/alter/eliminate some habits? Don't bother then with this book. It has some nice stories, the first half of the book is relatively informative on a more... Read more
Published 7 months ago by BrahmaBull
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good kickstart and reminder about the power of habit
The core of this book is the concept of habit loops. A cue triggers a behavior at the end of which is some kind of reward. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Rodge
3.0 out of 5 stars
Blink, the sequel
This is a bit of a Malcolm Gladwell copycat book, but it provides useful new information and also has a brief appendix for those who want to apply some of the information from the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by R. Kresnyak
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful, powerful, instantly applicable to work and life
This book has been on international best seller lists for months.
And I can see why.
You can't skim this book. Read more
And I can see why.
You can't skim this book. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Paul Nazareth
Listmania!
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