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

Adriano Marques
CEO at XNV

“We become what we repeatedly do.”

Sean Covey at The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens

Insightful analysis on how our brain develops habits using the most recent and intriguing cases studied in the field. The author makes a phenomenal job explaining how habits are developed in our brains, how to suppress them, and how to develop good habits. The case studies alone will bring you a completely new perspective on the matter, understanding how common sense understanding of habit formation misrepresents and diminishes the reality about the subject.

The premise is that habits are developed through repetition and triggered by cues, with the brain’s goal on achieving some kind of reward. A smoking habit, for example, could have been developed because the then non smoker found some comfort to her anxiety by going outside to smoke and interact with people. Every time she felt anxious, the brain would kick in and make her feel the need to smoke to get the comfort reward once again through smoking.

A habit is not conscious and can not be forgotten. The brain will always seek to respond to the various cues that it identifies seeking for opportunities to be rewarded and the only way around a developed bad habit it is to identify the cues that triggers the habit and consciously change the way respond to them in a more positive way.

Very inspiring book, life changing even. Highly recommend, and will certainly read it again in the future.

THE BLOG

News, lessons, and content from our companies and projects.

Stay In The Loop!

Receive updates and news about XNV and our child companies. Don't worry, we don't SPAM. Ever.