The Power Of Habits

Below I have provided some useful link, a more detailed summary and the book in pdf. These are external link.
Habits are powerful tool, it controls our life.It can have drastic measures causing to murder kill gamble or making your life a better one. There are some ancient and evolutionary. We carry unaware habitual pattern inside each of us. Habits define why we are the way we are. And That is the theme of the book that Duhigg choose, "Why we do what we do and how to change". The writer put's scientific views and researches gathered from large mass of information giving you the exact things you need to know. The book covers hundreads of incidents, from the habits of individuals to gigantic comercial enterprises. Also evaluating the habits that brought change into the world and how it shaped our society. Putting together THE POWER OF HABIT gives us fascinating insights about our own selves that leads us to believe in change, have faith and control our life and environment.
Duhigg's THE POWER OF HABIT is split into 3 parts each with numerous evidences from interviews that demonstrates the impact and over-all capabilities of habits.
Part One contains the habits of individuals focusing on the habit loop (how habits work), The craving brain(how to create new habits) and The Golden Rule Of Habit Change(Why Transformation occures).
Part Two holds the habit of successful organisation like Sturbucks, pepsodent, and how companies predict our buying patterns.
And lastly Part three evaluates the habits of society, how and why movements occur and the brain's function of free will.
Here is given a brief summary of each chapters in THE POWER OF HABIT.

part one

Chapter One introduces us to the basal ganglia and the three-step-loop, the bare basics of habit formation. Basal Ganglia is the place in the brain responsible for habit formation. It shows how brain-damaged patients like Eugene Pauly(known as E.P suffered from short-term-memory loss or anterograde amnesia) can form new habits even though cannot retain new memory. Next chapter we get to the idea of creating new habits by using the craving brain. It shows how products like “Pepsodent” flourish in a place where barely a few percentage of the population has the habit of tooth brushing. It adds a new material in our habit-loop to create new habit. It is craving for reward. This is how it was possible for companies like Procter and Gamble to make febrez a national good.
Chapter three focuses on why transformation occurs, presented with the Heading THE GOLDEN RULE OF HABIT CHANGE. So what is the golden rule of habit change? How is it possible that people can quit addiction. Perennial losers can become champions. You can too change your habits by applying the golden rule of habit change: If we keep the same cue and same reward, a new routine can be inserted. "but that’s not enough. For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible. And most often, that belief only emerges with the help of a group."

THE HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATIONS


Chapter Four introduces us to the Keystone habits, the habits which matter most. And how people like Paul O’Neill can help risky jobs in company like Alcoa to be the safest one. If we can mark the keystone habit change becomes easy.
The next chapter renders the automation of will power with the heading STARBUCKS AND THE HABIT OF SUCCESS. If you want to do something, will power is essential. Will power is like a muscle, you have to store it to use. That introduces “small wins”. We should focus on small goals, and gradually our way to the big goals will be easier. “small wins do not combine in a neat, linear, serial form, with each step being a demonstrable step closer to some predetermined goal.” –karl Weick. So if we could make will power into habits victory should be easier.
Chapter six precedes us with the power of crisis, How leaders create Habits through accident and design. Crisis are important, “This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before.” “crisis are so valuable,” writes Duhigg,”that sometimes it’s worth strirring up a sense of looming catastrophe rather than letting it down”
Chapter Seven shows us how giant companies like Target analyses information to predict its user’s buying habit. The chapter shows us how Andrew Pole could make an algorithm that could predict which customers are pregnant and send them coupons to inspire them in buying. It demonstrates how songs can be popularized, by making them hear similar to famous ones.

Part Three HABITS OF SOCIETIES


This part contains two more interesting chapter 8 and chapter 9 chapter 8 describes how movements occur, evaluating the incidents of black citizens in America and how it lead to the movement and how Martin Luther King convinced millions of crowds and was successful in his attempt.
The next chapter named the Neurology of free will describes if we are responsible for our dreams. We come to know about Angie Bachman, a house-wife and her way to gambling and how it drained away her bank account within years. We also come to know about many murder cases for example the case of Brian Thomas who killed his wife and defended himself saying he was dreaming. Although we see that both of the cases has similar ground, but Brian was freed and Banchman accused of debt. This chapter talks about our choice to make different habits, though some of the habits are out of our control(that in the case Brian).
At last the author puts on a guide to use the ideas in the book in real world. The framework: 1. Identify The routine 2. Experiment with rewards 3. Isolate The cue 4. Have a plan The book describes with precise plannings and evidences how we can change our life inorder to make it a better one. In order to go deep into your habits and know how to control them you should read this book. You will gain bright insights about yourself.
June 6th '21