In other words, habits cannot be eliminated, but they can be replaced. You can break the habit by substituting an apple for the cookie. The reward is we feel good after doing so, but you gain weight because of eating that cookie every day. For example, every afternoon you get up from your desk to take a break, and you stop at the cafeteria to grab a coffee and a cookie. Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and the reward stay the same. To break a bad habit, you must keep the old cue and deliver the same reward, but insert a new routine. He explains how habits are formed by a cycle of a cue that triggers some behavior (good or bad), then a reward, and then a craving develops to drive a loop of repetitive behavior.

Where is today's 'Hellhound of Wall Street'?īesides the compelling stories, Duhigg also provides the prescription for you to change a bad habit.

What a physicist can teach us about investing.

You'll also learn why the Rosa Parks incident ignited the civil rights movement as well as how Target predicts, with amazing accuracy, the trimesters of their women shoppers.

The book covers a wide spectrum from explaining how habits are formed and how the bad ones can be broken, to how information on habits can be used in marketing, management, and social movements.

It's thoroughly enjoyable and provided many 'ah ha' moments. (MoneyWatch) Charles Duhigg's 'The Power of Habit' accomplishes what few books are able to do: educate (it's a serious look at the science of habit formation and change) while being entertaining (filled with incredible stories).

The power of habit online