I read this book after reading its overall message in article form. Duhigg makes the claim that habits are everything, and then offers ways to change them in order to improve your life. This is not schlocky self-help- the tone is a little more subdued and a little more academic than most books of that nature. He can make habit-changing seem facile at times, which is eyebrow-raising when he's talking about addiction and addictive behavior, but he does come back at the end to point out that while understanding how to change habits is easy, changing them does require hard work, dedication, and time. Less easy. This is shown when the author attempts to change a simple habit- eating a cookie every day- and has to go through over a week of experimentation to identify the cue and reward, and then switch the habit.

One point that I did not expect to see is about the power of belief- new habits only stick through times of stress and pressure if the person believes- in the reason for change or in the fact that that change is possible. Old habits *do* die hard- in fact, they never die at all. The patterns your brain learns are always going to be in there.

Another useful piece of information was about cues- it may sound easy, but identifying the cues that your brain uses to decide when to go into autopilot can be very challenging. It is really interesting to pay attention to your own habits and see what cues you can identify, though.

As a side note, the last non-fiction book I read also made a case of the Saddleback Church. (That book was Quiet, The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.)