Biology Book Review: The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is a great book to read regardless of your interest in biology. However, an even better read if you get it after reading The Story of the Human Body. Lieberman’s book will make you want to make lifestyle changes and you will be left wondering how to make these changes. The Power of Habit is just the book to answer this question.
Duhigg has done a mountain of research before writing this book. As you read it, countless anecdotes will be provided to highlight each important point. On top of that, these stories will be explained by referencing research papers that back up each claim. As a result, the knowledge contained in this book will not leave you skeptical at all. In fact, as you read it, you will realize that the forces Duhigg is talking about can be seen directly affecting your life.
Let’s talk about the content: The Power of Habit is a book designed to inform the audience about how habits work. This is an important piece of knowledge for everybody because almost half of your daily activities are dictated by the habits you form. This means that you are not consciously aware of half the things you do! At first, this is a scary proposition, since it makes our lives appear impossible to control. However, Duhigg points out that this is not the case at all.
Habits are formed by repetition. Eventually, as you repeat an action enough times, the brain integrates the action into your subconscious. This is simply to free up your conscious thought for more tasks and to make your brain save time and energy. This means that all habits, good and bad, can be programmed into your brain.
Taking this into consideration, Duhigg discusses many environmental triggers that result in the formation of all habits. The information he provides us makes it possible to change the way your brain works. By instilling good habits, Duhigg believes that you can take control of the second half of your life. I have discussed this topic at length in my article on how habits work.
This book is written as a collection of stories. These stories range from personal accounts and business stories to research studies. Regardless of the story, it is worded in a way that makes it easy for everyone to understand. Each point comes across clearly and is a useful tool for improving your life.
This book is great for self development. I have instilled many good habits in my daily routine by following the advice provided in this book. The readability of The Power of Habit is excellent and I doubt the vocabulary will challenge many people. Simply put, this is a book designed to reach a general audience. I would rate this book a 9/10. Why a 9? Well, while learning about habits is great, this book lacked much information about the biolog. In order to fully appreciate the topic and complete the picture, I needed another book. This book is The Talent Code, which I have reviewed next.
Here is an Amazon link (Audible/Hardcopy) to the book if you are interested in learning more.