The Power of Habit

Notes

• Example: Eugene Pauly with severe brain damage and the rat with chocolate. The brain creates habits 0 The loop: from a cue you associate routine and reward. Monkey sees light, pulls lever, gets the treat. Hard to identify, as in the Febreze example
• YOU CANNOT ELIMINATE A HABIT, but you can change it by putting something else into the loop
• AA: faith, belief, and the group strongly influence habit change
• Small things, like Phelps or safety, can create massive habits
• The power of crisis. Often a disaster gives the push to change habits
• “Camouflage” a habit inside familiar things, like with “Hey Ya” or Walmart
• Rosa Parks: for habits in a society, you need social ties first, then values that involve the community, then the ability to endure with new habits (helped by King)
• The last chapter is excellent: a model for changing a habit. Identify the loop, experiment and take notes to track rewards, infer the cue, plan an alternative to modify it. Like the desire to eat something sweet at 2: identify the trigger (hunger, socializing, walking?), experiment by trying alternatives (eat a piece of fruit, see if you still feel the urge) and find something else. Set a 20-minute timer; if it is still there, have it