on focus

Book Review: Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

I just finished the book Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It is a book about how habits form, why we get them and how we can get rid of bad habits – or rather change them into something good.

I have always been interested by good habits. I think that habit building is one of the most important things for an entrepreneur to work on. With a small change you can change your life to be a little bit better every day, or a little bit worse every day. You may not even be aware of your habits, and mr Duhigg gives you an example of how to see your habits even if you are not aware of them from the beginning.

Some of my highlights from the book

You never want a serious chrisis go to waste

This refers to how people’s habit can be changed much more easily directly after a serious chrisis in their lifes.

This is how willpower becomes a habit: by choosing a certain behaviour ahead of time and then following that routine.

A reminder that you need to be proactive if you want to choose your habits.

No matter how much their employees want to do a great job, many will fail because they lack self-discipline.

On Starbucks-employees and why it is not enough to only have the intention to do a great job, but no habits or willpower for real success.

A good read

I like this book. It is simple, to the point and filled with interesting stories that makes the book easy to read and you can remember the stories for later. Don’t miss the appendix chapter, it is filled with good practical advice for actually changing your own habits.

The author is also active on Twitter and I was pleasantly surprised that he replied when I told another Twitter user about the book. Other authors can learn from this guy!

I learned a lot from the book, and I have a few habits of my own I need to work on. Many of my old habits completely vanished when I became a father. I simply could not stick to some of them because I had other things to care for.

Tell me what you think about habit building in the comments below. If you want to buy the book you can find it on Amazon.