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TIME OUT FROM ENGLISH GRAMMAR
This section features wide-ranging, thought-provoking articles in English on any subject under the sun. Its objective is to present new, mind-changing ideas as well as to show to serious students of English how the various tools of the language can be felicitously harnessed to report a momentous or life-changing finding or event, to espouse or oppose an idea, or to express a deeply felt view about the world around us.
The outstanding English-language expositions to be featured here will mostly be presented through links to the websites that carry them. To put a particular work in better context, links to critiques, biographical sketches, and various other material about the author and his or her works will usually be also provided.
The immense power of the right habits to transform one’s life
Why do habits exist and how can they be changed?
In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Random House, 371 pages), Charles Duhigg, award-winning New York Times business reporter distills in this highly entertaining and fascinating book the most recent scientific findings on habit formation and change from the fields of social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. He argues persuasively that the key to greater productivity and success in one’s personal and professional life is clearly understanding how habits work and then using that knowledge to transform one’s life.
To show the great transformative power of the right habits, Duhigg presents the fascinating case histories of such highly successful people as Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and the late civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and of such huge corporate profit-makers as Procter & Gamble and Target superstores. “Once you understand that habits can change,” Duhigg explains, “you have the freedom — and the responsibility — to remake them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to work.”
Says the Newsweek Daily Beast in a review of the book: “Duhigg brings a heaping, much-needed dose of social science and psychology to the subject, explaining the promise and perils of habits via an entertaining ride that touches on everything from marketing to management studies to the civil-rights movement… a fascinating read.”
Read an excerpt from Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit in Slate.com now!
Read Timothy D. Wilson’s “Can’t Help Myself,” a review of this book, in The New York Times now!
Read the Teachers’ Study Guide to The Power of Habit at RandomHouse.com now!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Charles Duhigg is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards, and was part of a team of finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He is a frequent contributor to This American Life, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Frontline. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College.
