Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort. Charles Duhigg More Quotes by Charles Duhigg More Quotes From Charles Duhigg Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. It's not completely clear why. But for many people, exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change. Charles Duhigg change fitness patience Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. Charles Duhigg each-day choices decision Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense. Charles Duhigg common-sense powerful strong If you tell people that they have what it takes to succeed, they'll prove you right Charles Duhigg succeed prove people Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power of habit becomes easier to grasp and the only option left is to get to work. Charles Duhigg easier habit responsibility Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. Charles Duhigg effort easy might If you believe you can change - if you make it a habit - the change becomes real. Charles Duhigg habit real believe Shampoo doesn’t have to foam, but we add foaming chemicals because people expect it each time they wash their hair. Same thing with laundry detergent. And toothpaste—now every company adds sodium laureth sulfate to make toothpaste foam more. There’s no cleaning benefit, but people feel better when there’s a bunch of suds around their mouth. Once the customer starts expecting that foam, the habit starts growing. Charles Duhigg feel-better hair people The brain has this amazing ability to find happiness even when the memories of it are gone. Charles Duhigg finding-happiness brain memories The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can't extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it. Charles Duhigg golden-rule golden habit Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the orther team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned. Charles Duhigg champion team thinking When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit -- unless you find new routines -- the pattern will unfold automatically. Charles Duhigg focus fighting decision There’s something really powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend disbelief. A community creates belief. Charles Duhigg community powerful people However, to modify a habit, you must decide to change it. You must consiously accept the hard work of identifying the cues and rewards that drive the habits' routines, and find alternatives. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to use it -- and every chapter in this book is devoted to illustrating a different aspect of why that control is real. Charles Duhigg hard-work real book This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be. Charles Duhigg habit insight real Once people learned how to believe in something, that skill started spilling over to other parts of their lives, until they started believing they could change. Belief was the ingredient that made a reworked habit loop into a permanent behavior. Charles Duhigg skills believe people What we know from lab studies is that it's never too late to break a habit. Habits are malleable throughout your entire life. But we also know that the best way to change a habit is to understand its structure - that once you tell people about the cue and the reward and you force them to recognize what those factors are in a behavior, it becomes much, much easier to change. Charles Duhigg labs too-late people Self-discipline has a bigger effect on academic performance than does intellectual talent. Charles Duhigg discipline intellectual self The more you focus, the more that focus becomes a habit. Charles Duhigg habit focus The problem is that your brain can't tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if you have a bad one, it's always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards. Charles Duhigg old-habits differences waiting
