The+Power+of+Habit+by+Charles+Duhigg

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= **Book Summary** =


 * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY **
 * //The Wall Street Journal • Financial Times// **

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.

Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year.

An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones.

What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives.

They succeeded by transforming habits.

In //The Power of Habit, //award-winning //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">New York Times //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">At its core, //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Power of Habit //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives. //(by publisher)//

http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-What-Business/dp/1400069289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371417558&sr=8-1&keywords=duhigg+the+power+of+habit

=**About the Author**=



<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">My name is Charles Duhigg, and I'm a reporter for The New York Times. I'm also the author of a forthcoming book from Random House, The Power of Habit, about the science of habit formation in our lives, companies and societies.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I've worked at the Times since 2006. I'm currently working on a series about Apple named "The iEconomy," and before that, I contributed to other series, including "Golden Opportunities" (which received the George Polk Award, the Sidney Hillman Award and a Deadline Award), "The Reckoning," (which won the Loeb and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), and "Toxic Waters," (which received The Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors' Medal, the National Academies' reporting award and others.) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm a native of New Mexico and I studied history at Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. Before becoming a journalist, I worked in private equity and - for one terrifying day - was a bike messenger in San Francisco. I have appeared on This American Life, N.P.R., The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and Frontline. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">If you would like to contact me, I would love to hear from you. I'm at charles@charlesduhigg.com

= **Discussion Questions** = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. Why was E.P. described as “a man who would upend much of what we know about habits”? What did researchers learn from him?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. What ability do patients with basal ganglia damage lose?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. Thinking back to the example of McDonald’s restaurants presented on page 26 in the book, how does this company use cues and rewards to trigger habit loops in its customers?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4. What cues and rewards can you identify when you’ve been to fast food restaurants? What about other settings, like movie theaters, or clothing stores?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5. Using the graph on page 19 as a guide, diagram your own habit loop for entering a password on your email account or your pin number at the ATM. Identify the cue, routine, and reward for this habit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6. Can you diagram the habit loop for when you go into the cafeteria, or have a meal at home?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">7. Do you think it was ethical for psychologists to study E.P.? Was he able to consent to research onducted on his memory and habits? Explain why (or why not) the benefits of this research outweigh the negative effects it may have had on his life.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">8. On page 21 the author writes, “Habits are often as much a curse as a benefit.” What are examples of habits that are beneficial or detrimental in your own life?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9. The author writes that it is possible to reawaken a habit, and that habits never disappear, but are changed by new cues, routines, or rewards. Describe a habit of yours that has been changed or replaced. Do you agree or disagree that this habit can be reawakened? Why? What would it take to reawaken your habit?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">10. Psychologists have learned a great deal about habit and memory from studying individuals who have memory deficits. How are lessons from people like E.P. and H.M. relevant to your life?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">11. Make a plan for a new habit you would like to develop. Identify what you can use as a cue, the steps involved in creating a routine and the reward this new habit will deliver. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(Questions issued by publisher.)

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