25th November 2018

BACKGROUND

The other day I was watching a Bollywood movie, Sanju, portraying different facades including addictions, of the life of a veteran Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. After watching that movie, I could realize how important habits are in our lives. In my opinion, our habits greatly impact our destiny. I repeat “Our habits greatly impact our destiny. So form good habits, and also give a try to ‘The Power of Habits’.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

The book ‘THE POWER OF HABITS – WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO IN LIFE AND BUSINESS’ a best seller by the author ‘CHARLES DUHIGG’ is a very resourceful matter to start from if we wish to know more about ‘habits’! It is a lucidly written, easy to understand, 156-page book and filled with astonishing scientific facts and real-life case studies. The book could be completed in two weeks with a daily two-hour reading. In this book, the author brings forth the significance of habits, its formation, modification and its value on the free will of our day to day lives.

In this way, the book is divided into three parts: The first section focuses on how habits emerge within individual lives. It explores the neurology of habit formation, how to build new habits and change old ones, and the methods. The second part examines the habits of successful companies and organizations. The third part looks at the habits of societies.

Each chapter revolves around a central argument: habits can be changed if we understand how they work. Though transforming a habit isn’t necessarily easy or quick, but it is possible.

However, content-wise, the book consists of PROLOGUE, THE HABIT LOOP, THE CRAVING BRAIN, THE GOLDEN RULE OF HABIT CHANGE, KEYSTONE HABITS, STARBUCKS AND THE HABIT OF SUCCESS, THE POWER OF CRISIS, HOW TARGET KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT BEFORE YOU DO, SADDLEBACK CHURCH AND MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT and THE NEUROLOGY OF FREE WILL.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr. Charles Duhigg is a well-known and respected journalist worldwide. He is based in the US and has been a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. He has written books on habits and productivity. His other book worth reading is Smarter Faster Better.

INTERPRETATION

The book starts with an interesting story worth sharing, ‘Lisa Allen, according to her file, was thirty-four years old, had started smoking and drinking when she was sixteen, and had struggled with obesity for most of her life. At one point, in her mid-twenties, collection agencies were hounding her to recover $10,000 in debts. An old résumé listed her longest job as lasting less than a year. The woman in front of the researchers today, however, was lean and vibrant, with the toned legs of a runner. She looked a decade younger than the photos in her chart and like she could out-exercise anyone in the room. According to the most recent report in her file, Lisa had no outstanding debts, didn’t drink, and was in her thirty-ninth month at a graphic design firm.’ How did that change happen? ‘On her first morning in Cairo, Lisa woke at dawn to the sound of the call to prayer from a nearby mosque. It was pitch black inside her hotel room. Half blind and jet-lagged, she reached for a cigarette. She was so disoriented that she didn’t realize—until she smelled burning plastic—that she was trying to light a pen, not a Marlboro. She had spent the past four months crying, binge eating, unable to sleep, and feeling ashamed, helpless, depressed, and angry, all at once. Lying in bed, she broke down. She showered and left the hotel. As she rode through Cairo’s rutted streets in a taxi and then onto the dirt roads leading to the Sphinx, the pyramids of Giza, and the vast, endless desert around them, her self-pity, for a brief moment, gave way. She needed a goal in her life, she thought. Something to work toward. So she decided, sitting in the taxi that she would come back to Egypt and trek through the desert. It was a crazy idea, Lisa knew. She was out of shape, overweight, with no money in the bank. She didn’t know the name of the desert she was looking at or if such a trip was possible. None of that mattered, though. She needed something to focus on. Lisa decided that she would give herself one year to prepare. And to survive such an expedition, she was certain she would have to make sacrifices. In particular, she would need to quit smoking.’ To the scientists at the laboratory, the details of her trek weren’t relevant. Because for reasons they were just beginning to understand, that one small shift in Lisa’s perception that day in Cairo the conviction that she had to give up smoking to accomplish her goal —had touched off a series of changes that would ultimately radiate out to every part of her life. ‘Over the next six months, she would replace smoking with jogging, and that, in turn, changed how she ate, worked, slept, saved money, scheduled her workdays, planned for the future, and so on. She would start running half-marathons, and then a marathon, go back to school, buy a house, and get engaged. Eventually, she was recruited into the scientists’ study, and when researchers began examining images of Lisa’s brain, they saw something remarkable: One set of neurological patterns—her old habits—had been overridden by new patterns. They could still see the neural activity of her old behaviors, but those impulses were crowded out by new urges. As Lisa’s habits changed, so had her brain.’ It’s not just individuals who are capable of such shifts. When companies focus on changing habits, whole organizations can transform. Lisa was the scientists’ favorite participant because her brain scans were so compelling, so useful in creating a map of where behavioral patterns— habits—reside within our minds. The choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, how often we exercise, and the way we organize our thoughts and work routines have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness.

HOW HABITS WORK?

When the MIT researchers started working on habits in the 1990s they were curious
about a nub of neurological tissue known as the basal ganglia.

The human brain is like an onion, composed of layer upon layer of cells. Those closest to the scalp—are generally the most recent additions from an evolutionary perspective. That’s where complex thinking occurs. E.g. a new invention or a laugh at a friend’s joke, etc. Deeper inside where the brain meets the spinal column—are older, and more primitive structures which control our automatic behaviors, such as breathing, swallowing, and reflex actions. Toward the center of the skull is a golf ball–sized lump of tissue that is similar to what one might find inside the head of a fish, reptile, or mammal. This is the BASAL GANGLIA.

The habits are stored in basal ganglia through a process called ‘CHUNKING’ i.e. converting a sequence of actions into an automatic routine. E.g. when we are learning to drive, then the associated routines seem difficult. After a lot of practice, we become adjusted to different intricacies of driving such that it doesn’t seem to be a tedious task at all. In other words, a complex task of driving performed again enables it to become our habit such that it eventually becomes a part of our reflexes.  This happens only due to chunking. Thus, once habits start unfolding, our gray matter is free to quiet itself or chase other thoughts. Habits emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort.

The process of habit formation within our brains is a three-step loop. It is also called HABIT LOOP. The first step is called CUE. A cue is a trigger that tells the brain to go into an automatic mode for an associated habit. Cue is anything, from a visual trigger such as a candy bar or a television commercial to a certain place a time of day, an emotion, a sequence of thoughts etc. The second step is a ROUTINE, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a REWARD, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Rewards can range from food or drugs that cause physical sensations, to
emotional payoffs, such as the feelings of pride that accompany praise or self-congratulation Over time, this loop—cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward—becomes more and more automatic.

Habits never really disappear per se but get encoded into the structures of our brain. That’s a huge advantage for us, as it would be awful if we had to relearn how to drive after every vacation. The problem is that the brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if we have a bad one, it’s always lurking there, waiting for associated cues and rewards.

So if we learn to create new neurological routines that overpower those bad behaviors, then we can force those bad tendencies into the background.

HOW ARE HABITS FORMED?

New habits are created through a process called CRAVING. Craving influences how cue and reward work. Craving (i.e. desire/frustration) is what powers the habit loop. The stronger the craving, the longer the new habits are formed.

So by putting together a cue, a routine, and a reward, and then cultivating a craving that drives the loop, a new habit can be formed. Example, when a smoker sees a cue—say, a pack of Marlboros—his brain starts anticipating a hit of nicotine. Just the sight of cigarettes is enough for the brain to crave a nicotine rush.

Particularly strong habits produce addiction-like reactions that can force our brains into autopilot, even in the face of strong disincentives, including loss of reputation, job, home, and family.

However, these cravings don’t have complete authority over us. But to overpower a bad habit, we must recognize which craving is driving bad behavior.

HOW TO TRANSFORM A HABIT?

To form a new habit have a strong craving like that of the previous habit. Keep the old cue and deliver the old reward but INSERT A NEW ROUTINE.

That’s the rule: If we use the same cue, and provide the same reward, we can shift the routine and change the habit. Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same. This GOLDEN RULE has influenced treatments for alcoholism, obesity, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and hundreds of other destructive behaviors.

When a stressful situation or circumstances hit us, it is seen many of us resort to our previous bad habits. Hence, for habits to permanently change, fostering BELIEF is important. People must believe that change is feasible. Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.

Thus, if one wants to quit smoking, then s/he should figure out a different routine that will satisfy the cravings filled by cigarettes. Then, find a support group, a collection of other former smokers, or a community that will help one in believing he can stay away from nicotine.

WHICH HABITS MATTER THE MOST?

Some habits matter more than others in remaking businesses and lives. These are KEYSTONE HABITS. These habits can influence how people work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Keystone habits start a process that, over time, transforms everything. These habits can be detected through SMALL WINS which fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.

CONCEPT OF WILL POWER

Willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success. The best way to strengthen willpower is to make it into a habit.

At times it may appear that people with great self-control aren’t working hard. They have a strong willpower. These people have made exercising their willpower a habit automatically, thereby strengthening it. In this way by choosing a certain behavior ahead of time, and then following that routine when an inflection point arrives a willpower can become a habit. One way to do that is by thinking ahead of time-worst case scenario and being prepared. That is to say is by having a plan.

In this way, willpower is like a muscle. The way muscles increase is the way willpower increases.

HOW LEADERS CREATE HABITS THROUGH ACCIDENT AND DESIGN?

This is done by creating a crisis, voluntarily/involuntarily. Good leaders seize crises to remake organizational habits. In fact, crises are such valuable opportunities that a wise leader often prolongs a sense of emergency on purpose.

HOW MOVEMENTS HAPPEN?

A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances. It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together. And it endures because a movement’s leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and a feeling of ownership.

ARE WE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR HABITS?

For Aristotle, habits reigned supreme. Habits are not as simple as they appear. To modify a habit, one must decide to change it, one must consciously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits’ routines, and find alternatives. So once we know a habit, especially a bad habit exists, then we have a responsibility to change it! This is because we have free will.

In this way we and only we are responsible for our habits.

CONCLUSION

Habits greatly affect our lives. It’s a part of a three-step loop: cue, routine, and reward. By changing routine and keeping cue and reward as same, new habits can be forged. For a new habit to last permanently, people must believe in what they are doing. Keystone habits are important habits worth forging. Willpower is an important keystone habit that strengthens the more we exercise it. As rational humans, we are responsible for our habits.

The book is going to be very informative and helpful for the reader to wish to know more about habits and its importance on their day to day lives.

Regarding the movie, I would say after being able to relate it to this book, I simply have deep respect for the actor, and all other artists associated with it.

Best wishes!

(For more information on the author, please visit: https://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit/ The reader may buy the book from Amazon. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business/dp/081298160X)