The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

The author introduces the Golden Rule of habit change early in the book: “You Can’t Extinguish a Bad Habit,” he pronounces, “You Can Only Change It” (63). Because habits are so deeply embedded in our basal ganglia, attempting to eliminate them is impractical. Instead, we can trick our brains into performing new habits by updating the old. Key to this transformation is manipulating the habit loop. The Golden Rule is to change the loop’s routine but keep the cue and the reward exactly same.

The Golden Rule is best embodied in the book’s case study about Bill Wilson, who founded AA in the 1930s. Wilson’s program encourages participants to stop drinking by teaching them to change the routine portion of their drinking habit loop. When an individual feels lonely—the cue—they should reach for the phone to call their sponsor instead of heading to the bar—the routine. In the end, they receive the same reward: companionship and reduced loneliness.

The habit loop is the fundamental pattern by which our thousands of behaviors unfold. Duhigg familiarizes the reader with the loop in the book’s earliest chapters, thereby engraving the loop’s structure (cue > routine > reward) into the reader’s memory. Changing a habit loop is difficult, but possible. Key to that change is implementing the Golden Rule of habit change and identifying a keystone habit.

In the Appendix, Duhigg acknowledges that it is challenging to identify habit loops in the course of the day when we are bombarded with thousands of sounds, smells, noises, and routines. Despite the difficulties, Duhigg concludes that we are responsible, and legally liable, for our habit loops: “Everything we know about habits, from neurologists studying amnesiacs and organizational experts remaking companies, is that any of them can be changed, if you understand how they function” (270).

For anyone seeking to change a large number of habits in their personal life or at the organizational level, Duhigg suggests targeting one central habit first before attempting to tackle any others. A keystone habit is the type of habit that, once changed, initiates a cascade effect for all other related habits. In the case of Lisa Allen, for example, her choice to quit smoking positively affected her other poor behaviors, including her spending habits and health.

Dislodging a deeply rooted, difficult habit, such as smoking, comes down to willpower: “Dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important keystone habit for individual success” (131). Do not expect to overhaul the entire system in one attempt, the author cautions. Tackling one single keystone habit first promises a small win for both individuals and organizations. By establishing new structures around a keystone habit, we can encourage other habits to fall into place.