The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg is a very interesting book. I know I say this about every book lately but they've all been good! This book is full of stories that really draw you in while it's teaching you. And it wasn't just me. My husband and teenagers also really enjoyed reading it.
The book starts with a story about a man named Eugene. As an older man, he became very sick with viral encephalitis and wasn't expected to survive. He did survive, but he completely lost his memory of the last 30 years. He couldn't retain any new information for longer than a minute. He could watch the same TV show over and over and never remember that he had seen it before. If you asked him to draw a map of his house, he couldn't tell you where anything was. However, the part of his brain that governs habits still functioned. So even though he couldn't tell you where the kitchen was, he could still walk in and get a drink by himself. If he had been taken on walks, he could go outside and go on a walk and not get lost, even though he couldn't tell you where his house was. Fascinating.
Another good story was how Starbucks has trained people to have successful life skills (think habits) and be good employees. A young man who was raised by drug addicts and was a high-school dropout had a pretty dismal future. His employment record was lousy. But now, at the age of 25, he is the manager of two Starbucks and is responsible for revenues exceeding $2 million a year. He has no debt, he's never late to work, and he doesn't get upset on the job. And it's all thanks to Starbucks' training and helping him have good habits.
The book also talks about a man who came from a really bad background where all of his friends ended up as drug addicts. He joined the military which showed him the habits for success. He ended up going to Iraq during the war and making a big difference in stopping the violence there. There was a city called Kufa with frequent riots. This guy, an Army major, studied why the riots were starting. What would happen is crowds of people would gather in a plaza. The crowds would get bigger and food vendors would show up. Someone would throw a rock or a bottle and then a riot would break out. So this guy asked the mayor if he could keep the food vendors out of the plazas. The mayor said yes and this ended the riots. Everyone would get hungry and would leave before the riots could get started!
Habits are really interesting to me. I spend a lot of time wondering how I can get my children to make their beds in the morning or do lots of other good things without me following them around all day long. I need to apply more of the information in this book to figure out this problem! I think I'm going to read it again.
The book starts with a story about a man named Eugene. As an older man, he became very sick with viral encephalitis and wasn't expected to survive. He did survive, but he completely lost his memory of the last 30 years. He couldn't retain any new information for longer than a minute. He could watch the same TV show over and over and never remember that he had seen it before. If you asked him to draw a map of his house, he couldn't tell you where anything was. However, the part of his brain that governs habits still functioned. So even though he couldn't tell you where the kitchen was, he could still walk in and get a drink by himself. If he had been taken on walks, he could go outside and go on a walk and not get lost, even though he couldn't tell you where his house was. Fascinating.
Another good story was how Starbucks has trained people to have successful life skills (think habits) and be good employees. A young man who was raised by drug addicts and was a high-school dropout had a pretty dismal future. His employment record was lousy. But now, at the age of 25, he is the manager of two Starbucks and is responsible for revenues exceeding $2 million a year. He has no debt, he's never late to work, and he doesn't get upset on the job. And it's all thanks to Starbucks' training and helping him have good habits.
The book also talks about a man who came from a really bad background where all of his friends ended up as drug addicts. He joined the military which showed him the habits for success. He ended up going to Iraq during the war and making a big difference in stopping the violence there. There was a city called Kufa with frequent riots. This guy, an Army major, studied why the riots were starting. What would happen is crowds of people would gather in a plaza. The crowds would get bigger and food vendors would show up. Someone would throw a rock or a bottle and then a riot would break out. So this guy asked the mayor if he could keep the food vendors out of the plazas. The mayor said yes and this ended the riots. Everyone would get hungry and would leave before the riots could get started!
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