Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Power of Habit reflections


Haley Scholars Spring 2013 Reading Groups

We've covered several topics related to Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit so far such as habit loops, chunking, cues, and rewards.   Of the issues that we've covered, what's one topic addressed by Duhigg that you have found particularly noteworthy? Why?  

7 comments:

Jessica L.W. said...


The ideas about cues and triggers is what I find to be particularly noteworthy because it explains the reasoning behind how successful companies use advertising cues and triggers in order to attract consumers. Once the “habit loop” has fully developed, the quicker the behavior becomes embedded and subsequently develops into a habit. Lisa who we met at the beginning of the book was obese, a smoker, was in debt, and drank alcohol. She was able to transform her life by simply changing her habits. Once Lisa had developed those new “habit loops” the desired behaviors that she wanted became innate and eventually developed into “habits”. Lisa replaced her old routine that was associated with a particular cue and reward, with a new routine.

Hilary Conrad said...

I found the whole idea of how a habit is born interesting. I never thought that something so small as forming a habit like smoking actually went through a process to become a habit. After reading the steps of cue, routine, and reward, I can see how a habit can be extremely hard to break.

Shakita H. said...

The way a habit is developed is interesting. People start off doing things sometimes unknowingly and and it grows and builds into something else and becomes very hard to break or change that habit. The way the character Lisa changed her ways was very amazing ans anybody can do it if they change their behaviors and routines and began to develop new habits.

Kizzy Hopkins said...

Changing habits (cues, routine, rewards).
Habit formation was most salient to me because habit formation is the foundation of our behavior. Once our actions become automatic habits form.
Automatic actions become unconscious creating our daily routine which forms habits.
Thus far I have paid close attention to chapter 3, The Golden Rule of Habit Change. This chapter shows how to change old habits by providing the target with new routines, replacing the old ones, yet keeping some familiarity with cues and rewards.

Jasmine said...

I found the habit loops to be the noteworthy. I found this to be very noteworthy because it made me notice all of the little things I do without even thinking about it. There are some things I do so much out of habit that I don't even remember myself doing them when I think about it. An example of this is locking the door.

I also find it very amazing how powerful habit is. Even when our brains can't remember people or events it can somehow subconciously remember the trail that we walk on everyday.

Habit loops are proof of just how powerful the brain is. Habit loops are also an indication of how strong bad habits can be. We tend to think that when we have bad habits that we can alter and/or stop them whenever we please when in actuality we have to make ourselves stop because if not we will continue to do them just because that's what we've programmed ourselves to do.

Tia Borders Baptist said...

What i found to be noteworthy was the change in habit. I think because its so easy to make a habit that trying to break the habit seems to be difficult. It was interesting to see how breaking a habit can not only make new good habits but change your life. As a college student i feel this is important since u learn different habits through your college career, either good or bad. But most of all you just learn to change bad habits into good habits that can help you to change you life for the better. For example from high school to college my study habits have definitely change for the better and change my life in a good way. I get better grades then when i was in high school not using the best study habits.

Jessica J. said...


I feel that the idea of a habit forming and stopping a habit is definitely noteworthy. I didn't think of habits so much until now. It was interesting to me how easy a habit could be born but so hard to die once it has become a part of our daily lives. After reading about the cycle of a habit I plan to stop some before they can grow on me.