100 days of value challenge - Day 94: The power of habit

Day 94 - 100 days of value challenge!

Another book recommendation here today. I've gotten some feedback about people actually getting the books I recommend, so I felt like following up with another gem for you 🤩

I heard the power of habit as an audiobook after having it recommended to me by Bill Aulet, the leader of MIT's entrepreneurship program, and it lived up to my high expectations.

To be honest, it starts off a bit slow to lay a foundation of what the book is going to revolve around, but it quickly turns into an interesting collection of stories and examples of how habits control a lot of our behavior and how several industries have capitalized on that.

Music for instance. There's an especially interesting part there about popular music and how we react to new sounds. It's not a coincidence when pop artists release hits after hits, there's a lot of psychology involved.

The same is examplified by shopping. Isn't it strange how some newsletters appeal to you? How they might even know what you need without you even searching for it?

Data about who you are may very well tell you what you want before you even know it. All thanks to us being habitual creatures that are predictable.

Any major life changes have impact on your habits, most often without you noticing.

And the last nugget I'll give you (I can't spoil it all, you have to read it) is that all habits follow a three step sequence. First a cue, then an action and lastly the reward.

The cue could be you feeling hungry, the action being eating and then the reward of feeling full.

With bad habits it could be you feeling anxious, then taking a drink or doing drugs and then feeling relaxed.

The key to changing a habit is to figure out what the cues are and prepare to change the action to still achieve the same reward.

With the anxiety example you could pet your dog, meditate, see a friend or anything else that still gives you a similar reward. After some time, you will start craving the new action whenever the cue is there.

This is of course theoretical and makes it seem simple. It's not. But it's possible. And only if you're able to make yourself aware of the cues, actions and rewards.

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