Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6928-6
Publisher: Random House
Published: February 2012

 Why do you do the things you do? Even our casual routines and mannerisms tend to be the result of deeply ingrained habits. In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg studies how habits both hurt and harms both humans and corporations and details how we can adjust our habits for our benefit.

Using case studies of brain trauma patients, corporate marketing techniques, and corporate renewals, Duhigg shows the ways that habits are followed whether they are beneficial or harmful to the point of loss of life. All of these studies lead to the discovery of the cue-routine-reward loop that powers our actions.  By changing one variable in the equation, we can change our harmful habits such as smoking, inactivity, or gambling into better habits like exercise, healthy eating, and responsible money handling.

By showing how you can identify your triggers and reinforce positive actions to create new habits, this book is great for creating or changing habits. This book has helped me make some changes: watching less tv, being more consistent with my running (doing a 10k in the fall), and developing better eating habits.  It's quite a read (lots of science) -Duhigg does a great job of making the science really relatable.  It reads like a narrative rather than a textbook.  If you need to change some habits, this is a great book to get you started.

Review: What Did I Do Wrong by Liz Pryor

 

Title: What Did I Do Wrong?: What to Do When You Don't Know Why the Friendship is Over by Liz Pryor
Publisher: Free Press
Published: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 9781451649659
Pages: 208

    Friendships between women are the thing of lore: bosom buddies, summer sisters, sisterhood of the traveling pants, and so forth.  But what happens when the fun is over?
    There are tons of books of that celebrate the greatness of the bond between two women, but none about how to fix the friendship once it starts going south.  It's relatively easy to find books or societal validation of the heartbreak caused by the end of a relationship, but none specifically about female friendships.  If your spouse/lover/partner walked out on you, everyone would understand your need for a grieving period, why should a breakup with your bff be any different?  Liz Pryor set out to find out the reasons for the failure of friendships and ways to fix or end them in a way that gives both parties closure. 
   The book is full of tips on how to recuperate from being dumped by your bff.  There are also several chapters about how to dump bffs, particularly with crazy, emotional, or otherwise unpredictable people. She has a couple situations where the friendship doesn't end, it just changes.  With a little help from her husband, she even gets reunited with one of her own former bffs.
   This is a great book from someone that just lost a friendship and is trying to come to terms with the loss.  Believe me there are some stories in the book that are so petty or so terrible, you will definitely feel better or get some guidance about your situation.  She encourages letter writing, which isn't always a good thing.  Know yourself: if you're scared you're coming across like a stalker, you probably are being stalkerish.  Also watch those emails and voicemails.  The last friendship explosion I had resulted in some really crazy emails and voicemails.  If your friend, sends you a letter, open it.  You do not want to regret what could have been.  The main thing I got is to treat your friendships like all the other major relationships in your life.  Don't negate the value of the friendship because it is a platonic, female friendship.

* This book was provided by the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion. *