Essay on Old : Old Conventions Change

Old conventions change slowly. For instance, severe social problems—religious groups’ pessimistic perspective on homosexuality or people’s unregenerate perspective of racism—cannot change within a few years. Likewise, old habits never go away from people’s unconscious routines, same as crumpling up a piece of paper with one hand. When most people believe that breaking habits is as hard as breaking a rock with a drop of water, Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit, claims that habits can be changed if people understand how they work (xvii). Throughout the book, Duhigg focuses on a circulation of habit loop with three steps explaining why and how habits are happening; he also explains how to find the problem and then change the habit. One bad habit I have is that whenever I write wrong words or information on my notes, I simply tear off the page and start to write it over again. Although I waste too many papers on taking notes, neat handwriting give me a sense of satisfaction. When Duhigg says that inserting a new routine is the way of changing a habit (62), I realize that changing my routine in a better way will get rid of bad things from my habit. In consequence, by understanding Charles Duhigg’s ideas, changing my routine while keeping my same reward, I decide to change my habit: wasting papers on rewriting the notes. Over time, a structure of the habit loop gives me a clear reason why and how my habit follows the loop. According to Duhigg, almost every habit…