328 Quotes by Charles Duhigg

A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances.

Sleepwalking is an odd outgrowth of a normal aspect of how our brains work while we slumber. Most of the time, as our bodies move in and out of different phases of rest, our most primitive neurological structure – the brain stem – paralyzes.

The burst of subconscious virtuousness that comes from first buying butternut squash makes it easier to put a pint of ice cream in the cart later.

The basal ganglia, in other words, stored habits even while the rest of the brain went to sleep.

As people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives – in the gym, or a money management program – that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked. Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything.

Psychologists have a phrase for this kind of habitual forecasting: “creating mental models.”26 Understanding how people build mental models has become one of the most important topics in cognitive psychology.27 All people rely on mental models to some degree. We all tell ourselves stories about how the world works, whether we realize we’re doing it or not. But.

At some point, if you’re changing a really deep-seated behavior, you’re going to have a moment of weakness.

When people have a willpower failure, it’s because they haven’t anticipated a situation that’s going to come along.

The truth is, the brain can be reprogrammed. You just have to be deliberate about it.”2.