By Mark Aoyagi
Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit identifies the ways that habits shape our lives – and performances – and also how they can be changed once we become aware of them. A habit is simply the result of a loop in which we are cued by a trigger, unconsciously activate a routine, and then receive a reward that satisfies a craving (again, usually this craving is outside of our awareness). Habits serve the function of saving processing effort in our brain, which means we are meant to be unaware of them. This is what makes changing a habit difficult. But, once we are able to bring a habit into awareness, Duhigg provides a four step process for changing a habit:
1) Identify the routine
2) Experiment with rewards
3) Isolate the cue
4) Have a plan
Duhigg also provides several examples of athletes and performers achieving greatness because they developed the right habits. Michael Phelps visualized success under adverse conditions, which allowed him to swim for gold despite his goggles filling with water. Tony Dungy took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from a laughingstock to a Super Bowl winner (although he wasn’t coaching when they won) by changing habits so they could play faster by not (over) thinking.
As the author notes, the real power of habit is recognizing that your habits are your choices.
How are your habits impacting your performance?
What habits could you re-engineer to be more productive/effective?
Tagged: cues, effectiveness, focus, habits, performance, productivity, routines, triggers 
Source: The Performance of Your Life