"Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly
looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices, the brain will
try to make almost any routine into a habit, because habits allow our minds
to ramp down more often."
"When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating
in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other
tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit—unless you and new routines—the
pattern will unfold automatically."
"By the same rule, though, if we learn to create new neurological
routines that overpower those behaviors—if we take control of the habit
loop—we can force those bad tendencies into the background."
"But to overpower the habit, we must recognize which craving
is driving the behavior."
"Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary
things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team
to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.”"
"Attempts to give up snacking, for instance, will often
fail unless there’s a new routine to satisfy old cues and reward urges.
A smoker usually can’t quit unless she finds some activity to replace cigarettes
when her nicotine craving is triggered."
"“It seems ridiculously simple, but once you’re aware
of how your habit works, once you recognize the cues and rewards, you’re
halfway to changing it,”"
"When I do make the effort to overcome my shyness, I feel
that it is not really me acting, that it’s someone else,” he said. But
by practicing with his new group, it stopped feeling like acting. He started
to believe he wasn’t shy, and then, eventually, he wasn’t anymore. When
people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that
change to occur becomes more real."
"Understanding the cues and cravings driving your habits
won’t make them suddenly disappear—but it will give you a way to
plan how to change the pattern."
"Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set
in motion that favor another small win. Small wins fuel transformative
changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people
that bigger achievements are within reach."
"Sometimes it looks like people with great self-control
aren’t working hard—but that’s because they’ve made it automatic,” Angela
Duckworth, one of the University of Pennsylvania researchers told me. Their
willpower occurs without them having to think about it."
"Willpower is a learnable skill, something that can be
taught the same way kids learn to do math and say “thank you."
"Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the
muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so
there’s less power left over for other things."
"When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or
start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s
happening is that you’re changing how you think."
"When you learn to force yourself to practice for an hour
or run fifteen laps, you start building self-regulatory strength. A five-year-old
who can follow the ball for ten minutes becomes a sixth grader who can
start his homework on time."
"When people are asked to do something that takes self-control,
if they think they are doing it for personal reasons—if they feel like
it’s a choice or something they enjoy because it helps someone else—it’s
much less taxing. If they feel like they have no autonomy, if they’re just
following orders, their willpower muscles get tired much faster."
"There’s a natural instinct embedded in friendship, a sympathy that makes us willing to fight for someone we like when they are treated unjustly. Studies show that people have no problem ignoring strangers injuries, but when a friend is insulted, our sense of outrage is enough to overcome the inertia that usually makes protests hard to organize."
Written by Charles Duhigg
The
Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
