Do you ever find yourself standing at the refrigerator when you’re not hungry? Watching that one extra GOT episode instead of going to sleep?
These are “bad habits” and chances are: you have a lot of them. Habits are defined as things we are so used to do that they become our default action.
To understand how we can overcome these bad habits, we need to know more about the habit itself.
A habit consists of three parts: A cue, a routine, and a reward.
Cue: The trigger for the habit. Cues usually fall under the following categories.
- Time of day —> Example: Every day at 7:30 pm, you suddenly crave a chocolate.
- Location —> You immediately crave a frappuccino when you enter Starbucks.
- People —> You usually get wasted when you are with certain people.
The cue tells the brain to go into automated processing mode. Resisting the cue takes a great amount of willpower.
Routine: The most obvious aspect, it’s the exact behavior you want to change (e.g. smoking a cigarette, eating a chocolate) or create (e.g. running, drinking water instead of snacking).
Reward: The reward for completing the routine. For example the sweet taste of chocolate, the amazing feeling after completing a run. The rewards provide positive reinforcement for the desired behavior, making it more likely that you will produce that behavior again in the future.
How then, can you change a bad habit?
#1: Identify the habit you want to change (the routine).
First identify the cue, routine, and reward that leads to your habit. The difficult thing here can often be to isolate “the cue”. Try asking yourself these questions:
- Where are you?
- What time is it?
- What's your emotional state?
- Who else is around?
- What action immediately preceded the urge?
#2: Explore alternatives to replace your unhealthy habit
Now that you have researched and concluded on what’s happening at each stage of your habit, you need to brainstorm healthier routines to perform when your cue is triggered.
What alternative behaviors will provide a comparable reward to the one bad habit you are trying to eliminate?
Create a list.
For example. If you strive with saying no to chocolate, you can change the routine of eating chocolate, with the routine of e.g. eating an apple or drinking 0.5L of water.
#3: Remove triggers.
We all have different triggers for our bad habits. Many times, the key to change our bad habits is simply to remove the trigger.
E.g. If you crave a Frappuccino every time you see a Starbucks store, take a detour on your way to work so you will not pass Starbucks.
#4: Discipline
The start-up phase when you are trying to change your habit is the hardest. During this phase, your body is craving the old way. Therefore, in the start-up phase, you will need WILLPOWER and DISCIPLINE to start the automation of your new habit.
Creating a habit is a tedious process. Research tells us that it takes around 66 days to adopt a new habit into your life. Keep in mind that this varies from person to person, and it depends on the behavior, the person and the circumstances. In some cases, creating a new habit can take up to 8 months…
Therefore, taking a long-term view of success is critical. Habits won’t form itself, and the habit creation process will not be easy. Discipline is how you get from Point A to the often elusive Point B. Keep your mind focused on the reward, and push through the hard times.
After some time of resisting the urge to perform your bad habit, your new habit will become more and more automated. When you have changed your bad habit, the need for discipline is gone.
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