Reaction Paper: Neurologists, Sociologists, Geneticists

Reaction Paper
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Reaction Paper
Reaction 1
The power of habit by Charles Duhigg is a fascinating book that examines the nature of human habits in the manner it moulds, shape and affects individual’, organizations’ and societies’ habits. Pinning from the prologue, Duhigg narrates about Lisa, a woman who provides good science materials for scientists as she was a chain smoker, a drunkard, obese and a deabeat who had failed to hold on jobs as she was hired and fired frequently. Later she decided to turn her life around at the age of 34 where she became vibrant and lean. To change her life she halted the habit of drinking, smoking as well as becoming debt free and secure a good job.
Over three years, psychologists, neurologists and sociologists, geneticists became curious and look into Lisa’s case as well as other individual who have portrayed destructive habits and managed to turn their life around in short period of time. The author aim is to deduce how Lisa and other similar victims managed to do change their life. For example, Lisa narrates that she realized she needed to change her life the moment her husband left her. This made her spiraled downwards to an extent of attacking and threatening her ex-husband’s girlfriend. At this point, Lisa had no job, no husband, and decided to leave for Egypt, her dream vacation destination with the little credit she had saved.
While in Cairo, Egypt, Lisa was woken up in the morning by noises of Muslims prayers in the nearby mosque in her first night. She rose from the bed more mixed-up that instead of lighting up a candle, she lit a ball point pen and ended up stumbling over a jug of water. Later, she began feeling lonely and depressed again as she pondered on her ex-husband and the difficulty of securing another job when she returns home as well as how much she will hate the new job. She was also being traumatized by how unhealthy she felt at that time. With this intense desperation, Lisa realized that she needed to change at least one thing one that she could control. Therefore, Lisa had a task of identifying what actually she needed to change in her life. It was at this point that she came with a plan to trek through the Egypt dessert, an idea that appeared weird, but she was unwavering to undertake it. However, to prepare for this expedition, Lisa needed a year of preparation and part of it involved stopping the smoking habit.
The decision to quit smoking provided a pivotal point that triggered subsequent changes in every part of her life. Actually, the changes were psychologically visible and outlined in her mind. This was an indication that the new patterns of her habits were beginning to override the neural configurations of her old habits. Literally, Lisa had reorganized her life and scientist perceives this phenomenon as not only applicable to humans but also companies. For example, huge companies such as Target, Alcoa, Starbuck as well as Procter and Gamble have managed to rejuvenate through the principle of companies’ reorganization.
According to the author, there are many individuals who are like Lisa as human beings are creatures of habits. Quoting Williams James, ...