The Power of Habit is the book written by Charles Duhigg, award-winning business reporter of New York Times magazine. This book unveils on why some people struggle to change even when they keep trying for many years. When you discover what habit is, how it is created, and how it function, it is easier to build a new habit and make it last. The habits are essential things for our success. I kept hearing this or a similar variation of such saying about habits over the years and upon reading this book I need to admit that all is true. We will become more successful after forming the right habits, for example, if you want to be a writer then start writing articles on paper, PC, create blog posts, write articles to magazines on a periodic basis which forms the habit and brain does not need to spend much energy anymore as all becomes more of automatic process. It does not matter what your goal is, the habit is important in all areas, whether you want to become a writer, influencer, loose weight, and so on. The key to success is really a basic understanding of how the habit works.

Start answering questions like:

“what are you doing immediately when you wake up?”

“what are you saving vs. spending habits?”

“if you want to lose weight, how often do you exercise?”

Book nicely explains that all of the actions we made throughout the day are actually not decisions but rather a habit. When we perform some activities more often the easier they get and the less energy needs to be used to do them. This greatly helps because people tend to do things more often when there is no “pain” on the way or in other words when they become easier. The perfect example mentioned in the book is the habit of cleaning the teeth which most of us just simply do around twice per day without thinking, as we see award behind it which is a nice “white smile” and fewer dentists visits. Basically what our brains do is that it try to turn any routine into the habit.

There are 3 key points mentioned in the book on how our brain operates which is called 3-way stop loop:

  1. cues – tells brain to go into the automatic mode
  2. routine – can be a physical, emotional and mental
  3. reward – helps the brain to figure out what’s important and worth remembering

 

So in order to form a new habit, start doing small changes in your life, putting things into actions, which over time will form a habit. Before you start though, it is best if you put into your head positive thinking that you can do it and think about what reward you are going to get, which will drive the body and brain to perform activities more easily. If your goal is to lose weight, start measuring how much kilograms you have on the scale, keep tracking it and observe what things to change and motivate yourself to go to the gym more often by thinking about the results of having a nice and slimmer and most importantly healthier body. You can also reward yourself with some nice meal from every now and then in restaurant or whatever you feel you enjoy.

For more details, you can refer to the Amazon portal where you have also an opportunity to buy a hard copy or digital form of this book, which will positively affect your thinking and hopefully guide you more on how you can change your own habits yourself.

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