The Power Of Habit

Part of being a really good financial advisor lies not only with investment selection or the ‘numbers’ of financial management, but with understanding human behavior, and how that can assist or impair an individual to achieving success.

I recently read a book that can help all of us in our search to live a better life. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg shares the most recent research done to figure out why we do what we do in life and business. By understanding how our brains work (habits become very ingrained), we can then modify our behaviours to create new habits. He gives us a personal illustration from his own behavior modifications around chocolate chip cookies.

In the book, Duhigg addresses such diverse topics as struggles with weight loss, gambling addictions, Michael Phelps’ secret to his success, to how Target creates loyal returning customers again and again.

The other interesting part of this book is how businesses and corporations manipulate our ‘habits’ and create new ones that keep us loyal to a brand or retailer without our being aware of it. I think that by educating ourselves on how these systems work, we can guard ourselves from making bad financial decisions by responding to these sneak attacks.

I got the book from the library, and it is also available from local and online retailers.