As the year closes it’s easy to look at the coming twelve months as a reset to do better, improve ourselves, ditch bad habits and create new ones. But too often our approach to resolution making is one of sheer force of will – and invariably our habits, whether to exercise 3x a week or eat more vegetables fall by the wayside after a few weeks.
In Charles Duhigg’s fantastic The Power of Habit, he suggests the path to real habit forming is not one of simply willpower. There’s the habit loop of cue, routine, and reward that guides much of what we do, mostly unconsciously. We can build new habits – but we can’t really destroy old ones – merely take the same cues and rewards, and replace the routines.
If you’re trying to do something different in 2019 (and who isn’t), read the book before you make your resolutions. It will change your approach for the better.