The Amazing Thing About Habits — Habits Can Shift When the Environment Shifts
The environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior — James Clear
In 1971, Robert Steele and Morgan Murphy made a discovery that stunned the Americans Public.
Over 15% of US soldiers in Vietnam were heroin addicts.
They discovered that 35% of the soldiers had experimented and started the habit while in Vietnam.
A Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention under President Nixon was formed to investigate the issue.
Lee Robins, one of the researchers evaluating the problem, found that only when soldiers returned home, only 5 percent of them became re-addicted within a year, and just 12 percent relapsed within three years.
About nine out of ten soldiers who used heroin in Vietnam eliminated their addiction nearly overnight through environmental change.
Your environment can reinforce or deter your habits
Our habits are linked to our environment because of the available cues.
The things that light up your behaviors are the closest and part of your environment.
