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Programming Better Behaviours: Lessons from the Power of Habit for Personal Growth

Charles Duhigg’s bestselling book The Power of Habit examines the science behind habits, their formation, and strategies for positive habit change. This review summarises key ideas from the book and their application to programming better behaviours for personal growth and self-improvement.

Overview of the Power of Habit

Published in 2012, The Power of Habit explores the psychology and neuroscience underpinning habit formation. It shares research insights into habit loops, cues, cravings, and rewards. Real-world examples demonstrate habit principles in individuals, organisations, and society.

Duhigg structures the book into three sections: individual habits, social habits, and organisational habits. This review focuses on key lessons from the Individual Habits section most relevant to personal growth.

The Habit Loop Explained

According to Duhigg, habits emerge when the brain automatically converts a behaviour into a routine activity through a three-part process or loop:

The Cue

A trigger that initiates the habit. It is a piece of information that the brain associates with a habit and can be internal or external.

The Routine

The physical or mental action that manifests automatically in response to the cue It can be physical, mental, or emotional.

The Reward

A positive feeling that reinforces the habit. The brain begins craving the reward through a habit loop.

Understanding this habit loop—cue, routine, reward—provides the framework for habit change.

Habit formation and automaticity

By analysing MIT research experiments, Duhigg found that habits form through a process called chunking. Brain activity patterns change as behaviours are repeated in stable contexts. The chunked pattern becomes a habit.

The more automatic a habit becomes, the less brain activity and conscious thought occur when executing it. Automaticity frees up cognitive resources but also makes habits more difficult to change.

The Golden Rule of Habit Change

Duhigg emphasises that to change a habit, you must keep the cue and reward but replace the routine. This sustains the habit’s purpose while modifying its expression.

For example, to eliminate late-night snacking, keep the cue (time) and reward (stress relief), but substitute the routine (eating) with meditation.

The Four Laws of Behaviour Change

Drawing on clinical psychology studies, Duhigg formulated four laws to successfully instil new habits:

  1. Make it obvious.
  • Identify the routine you want to change and the cue triggering it.
  • Design clear cues to prompt the new routine through reminders, visibility, or ease.
  1. Make it attractive.
  • Ensure the new routine delivers prompt gratification to sustain motivation.
  • Associate it with an existing rewarding habit to reinforce it.
  1. Make it easy.
  • Reduce friction when performing the new routine by making it simple to start and easy to maintain.
  • Leverage existing habits by grafting a new routine onto their cues.
  1. Make it satisfying.
  • Link rewards closely, in time and context, to performing the new routine.
  • Ensure the new habit provides intrinsic satisfaction and meaning.

Applying the Four Laws for Common Goals

Duhigg’s four laws provide a structured approach to habit change for personal growth in areas like:

Healthy Eating

  • Make healthy food obvious. Keep fruits visible and junk food hidden.
  • Make it attractive. Enjoy healthy, delicious recipes and snacks.
  • Make it easy. Stock up on easy grab-and-go health foods.
  • Make it satisfying. Feel and look better after eating well.

Exercise

  • Make it obvious: Set out exercise gear daily as a cue.
  • Make it attractive. Do exercises you find fun at suitable times.
  • Make it easy: reduce preparatory steps to exercise and simplify routines.
  • Make it satisfying. Track progress and sense of accomplishment.

Personal Productivity

  • Make it obvious. Place work essentials prominently to cue focus.
  • Make it attractive. Complete satisfying tasks first.
  • Make it easy. Eliminate distractions and breaks between tasks.
  • Make it satisfying. Feel fulfilment as tasks are accomplished.

Stress Management

  • Make it obvious. Set phone alerts for short relaxation breaks.
  • Make it attractive. Enjoy leisure activities or social time as a reward.
  • Make it easy. Keep stress relief tools handy to access quickly.
  • Make it satisfying. Observe positive impacts on mental and physical states.

The four laws enable the intentional design of habit formation suited to the individual and desired goal.

Common Habit Change Pitfalls to Avoid

Despite good intentions, most new habits ultimately fail. Duhigg highlights common stumbling blocks:

  • Trying to stop a habit completely rather than modify it
  • Focusing only on the routine and not preparing cues and rewards
  • Lacking belief in the ability to change lifelong habits
  • Assuming change will be quick and linear rather than gradual with setbacks,
  • Becoming demoralised after slip-ups instead of planning for them.
  • Having unrealistic expectations and giving up easily.

Anticipating these pitfalls helps instill resilience and patience to persist in habit change.

The Role of Community in Habit Change

While individuals must implement new habits, Duhigg cites research showing that community support boosts success by:

  • Providing accountability through tracking and progress sharing
  • Ensuring positive peer pressure to maintain new habits
  • Normalising occasional setbacks to sustain motivation
  • Demonstrating desired habits to reinforce modelling
  • Offering resources, tools, and practical tips.
  • Giving advice and troubleshooting challenges.

Seeking positive communities aligned with the habit can thus accelerate its programming.

Keystone Habits for Wider Growth

The book introduces the concept of keystone habits—habits that trigger a cascading chain of positive personal changes. Improving keystone habits causes synergistic effects on other aspects of life.

For instance, regular exercise can impact energy, productivity, mood, self-image, and more. Targeting carefully selected keystone habits can create widespread growth.

Programming Habits at Scale

Duhigg also documents habit-programming experiments on large groups. For example, transforming the Hyatt’s toxic culture or the US Army’s training approach

The core principles—cue, routine, and reward—proved effective but required nuanced adaptation in communal contexts. Individual habit change forms the basis for wider cultural shifts.

Conclusion

The Power of Habit provides science-backed insights to evolve behaviours for personal growth. By understanding habit loops, applying the four laws of change, and reinforcing new routines through the community, we can gradually programme better habits aligned with our goals and values. While challenging, intentional habit change promises tremendous potential for self-improvement in health, productivity, relationships, and happiness.

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