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Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority – can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.

Charles Duhigg

The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Bad Change Gold Habit Yourself
When people have a willpower failure, it’s because they haven’t anticipated a situation that’s going to come along.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Failure People Situation Willpower Yourself
Research suggests that investment bankers are more prone to commit fraud when they feel the competitor at their heels.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Commitment Competition Heel Investment Research
If you believe you can change – if you make it a habit – the change becomes real.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Believe Change Habit Reality Yourself
Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Advantage Application Small Win
Some say because music is as much about personal expression as listening pleasure, sharing is integral to why songs have value in the first place.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Expression Listening Music Personal Place Value
There’s a natural instinct embedded in friendship, a sympathy that makes us willing to fight for someone we like when they are treated unjustly.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Fight Friendship Natural Sympathy Treat
The biggest moment of flexibility in our shopping habits is when we have a child, because when you think about it, all of your old routines sort of go out the window, and suddenly a marketer can come in and sell you new kinds of things.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Flexible Kind Marketing Moments Window Yourself
The cooperation of NASCAR – or any other system, it turns out – persists only when everyone believes he has the opportunity to win.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Believe Cooperation Himself Opportunity System Win
I think I’m smart, and I know I was a good mom. But there wasn’t a lot I could point to and say, that’s why I’m special.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Goodness Known Myself Smart Special Thinking
The brain has this amazing ability to find happiness even when the memories of it are gone.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Ability Amazing Finding Happiness Memories
For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Believe Change Habit People Possible Stay
At some point, if you’re changing a really deep-seated behavior, you’re going to have a moment of weakness.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Behavior Change Moments Point Weakness
Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Choice Day Feeling Habit Product
There’s something really powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they’re by themselves, but a group will convince them to suspend disbelief. A community creates belief.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Community Creation Disbelief Experience Powerful Share
America is the Saudi Arabia of coal.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Coal Country Power
Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over for other things.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Hard Work Power Skill Tired Willpower
The same process that makes AA so effective-the power of a group to teach individuals how to believe-happens whenever people come together to help one another change. Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Community Effect Individual Process Teaching
If you tell people that they have what it takes to succeed, they’ll prove you right.
CHARLES DUHIGG

People Right Success Yourself
Cravings are what drive habits. And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Anand Thakur
The best agencies understood the importance of routines. The worst agencies were headed by people who never thought about it, and then wondered why no one followed their orders.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Agency Follow Order People Routine Understand Wonder
Rather, to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Change Habit Old Reward Routine
If you want to do something that requires willpower – like going for a run after work – you have to conserve your willpower muscle during the day.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Conservation Day Run Willpower Work
The waste from power plants is essentially what is left over when you burn coal. And as we all know, coal is a relatively dirty mineral.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Plant Power Relative Waste
What studies say the number one best way to start an exercise habit is to give yourself a reward that you genuinely enjoy.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Best Enjoyment Exercise Genuine Reward Start Way
Companies aren’t families. They’re battlefields in a civil war.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Civil Company Family War
Habits are malleable throughout your entire life.
CHARLES DUHIGG

Change Habit Life Yourself

Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority – can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.

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Popular Authors

Simply giving employees a sense of agency- a feeling that they are in control, that they have genuine decision-making authority – can radically increase how much energy and focus they bring to their jobs.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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