The Power of Habit

Recently read a great book called The Power of Habit.  It looks at habits- both personal habits and corporate habits- and seeks to understand why habits work.  It's full of great stories and insights from diverse areas such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Pepsodent Toothpaste, Saddleback Church, Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement, and Target.  In fact, one of the more interesting stories comes from a researcher at Target who's developed software that can actually predict (or tell) which of its customers are pregnant based on purchases they make.  Now, that's not too terribly surprising.  If a customer buys prenatal vitamins along with pickles and ice cream, anyone can predict the customer is pregnant.  Only kidding.  No, the interesting thing is that the program can predict which customers are pregnant even if they don't know it yet or they do know it but haven't told anyone yet.  Fascinating.

Anyway, some takeaways from this book:

• The Habit Loop
• Cue leads to routine, routine leads to reward. the reward sends us back to the cue
• This is how new habits are created: by putting together a cue, a routine, and a reward, and then cultivating a craving that drives the loop.
• Take email- when a computer chimes or a smartphone vibrates with a new message, the brain starts anticipating the momentary distraction that opening an email provides. 
• Anyone can use this basic formula to create habits of his or her own.  Want to exercise more?  Choose a cue, such as going to the gym as soon as you wake up, and a reward, such as a smoothie after each workout.  Then think about that smoothie, or about the endorphin rush you’ll feel.  Allow yourself to anticipate the reward.  Eventually, that craving will make it easier to push through the gym doors every day.
• Cravings are what drive habits.  And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier.
• If you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit.  Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and the reward stay the same.
• Willpower isn’t just a skill.  It’s a muscle, like the muscle in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over for other things.
• A habit is a formula our brain automatically follows: when I see cue, I will do routine in order to get a reward.