S2E364 How to Build Better Habits with Charles Duhigg
It's a Good Life
Brian Buffini
4.4 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To kick off 2026, Brian welcomes back one of the show’s most popular guests: Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators. Together, they unpack why January is such a powerful moment to change, why most New Year’s resolutions fail and how to create habits that last.
Then two also discuss the importance of personal, high-touch communications and why, in an age of increasing AI, it’s more important than ever. Charles breaks down the three main types of conversations — practical, emotional and social — and how to recognize each type and then pivot when needed.
Brian also gets insights and tips on how to lean into his two chosen “words of the year” to create impactful results.
YOU WILL LEARN:
- How small steps and rewards can lead to habits that produce lasting habits.
- Why personalized human communication is still important, even as AI advances in our world.
- How to “super communicate” by matching practical, emotional and social conversations with the situation at hand.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“There's something about beginnings that give us additional motivation, that give us additional commitment, that give us oftentimes additional time and dedication.” — Charles Duhigg
“When I set those little goals…that’s the science of small wins…that’s going to make it easier and easier for those goals to become habits and to become automatic.” — Charles Duhigg
“Every habit has three components: a cue, a routine, and a reward.” — Charles Duhigg
“Instead of setting a New Year’s resolution that’s a goal, set one that’s a plan.” — Charles Duhigg
“You can not only change any habit you want—you can create any habit you want.” — Charles Duhigg
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself and your business. |
| 0:09.6 | Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, Brian Bafini. |
| 0:17.2 | Well, at top of the morning tea and welcome to It's a Good Life. |
| 0:19.8 | You know, as a father of six, |
| 0:21.0 | you're not supposed to have favorites. And as the host of a podcast and the curator of 2,500 seminars, you're not supposed to have favorites. But we all know, we all do. And we have one of our favorites on today, one of our crowd's favorites. And in a world we live in today, you know, I first got introduced |
| 0:37.6 | to habit by Steven Covey, and there's a million people talking about habits today. But there's |
| 0:42.8 | one person who brings the research, the science, and the ability to communicate it in terms that |
| 0:48.3 | even an Irishman can understand it. And his name is Charles Duhigg. And when I first read the |
| 0:53.1 | power of habit, it changed my life. |
| 0:55.8 | And then as we brought super communicators on and, you know, in the business we're in and coaching people, you know, when you have a book that teaches you how to unlock the secret language of connection, I was like, this guy's got to be our guy. |
| 1:07.5 | And he's spoken at our events. |
| 1:08.9 | He's come to our podcasts and shows. And we're just want to get people off to be our guy. And he's spoken at our events. He's come to our podcast and shows. |
| 1:12.1 | And we're just want to get people off to a great start here in 2026. And there's no other |
| 1:17.5 | better way to do it than having great habits and being a great communicator. Charles, thank you |
| 1:22.6 | so much for making the time for us today. We're delighted to have you and help people get off to a |
| 1:27.1 | good start for real. |
| 1:28.3 | Oh, thank you, Brian. It is such, every time I got a chance to visit with you and all of your |
| 1:33.3 | staff and your, your, your, your huge community, it's just such an enormous treat for me. |
| 1:39.2 | So thank you for having me. Well, you're a crowd favorite because you've been so helpful to people |
| 1:43.4 | and just, again, |
| 1:44.8 | mastery to me is to be able to be able to communicate the complex and make it simple for understand. And you're able to do that. As we step into 2026, people have gotten to the point, oh, I don't make New Year's resolutions anymore because they don't work. But there's a power to the start of a year and what it can do. And I'd just love you to talk about how do we set the tone for |
| 2:04.0 | the year and I it can do. And I'd just love you to talk about how do we set the tone for the year and also the habits that really can change our life. And we can talk about those New Year's resolutions because it turns out if you do them the right way, they do work. But you're exactly right. There's been a ton of research looking at when should I start a change in my life? And particularly a woman named |
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