How Habits Form & How To Use It to Change Your Life
When I was in my early twenties, I followed a woman across the world to be with her. I had been smoking for a few years by that time, but all of that changed when we were sitting outside one day and I realized that my girlfriend was now smoking just as much as I did. She didn’t smoke before she met me.
Sitting there that day, I suddenly wondered why I smoked at all. Why was I doing this to myself? Why did I let my bad habit rub off on my girlfriend?
I decided to quit smoking right there and then.
Habits, whether they are good or bad, have to form in some way. If we understand how habits form, we can take matters into our own hands to break bad habits and build good habits. That’s what I want to talk about today.
How Habits Are Formed
Think about your habits. Do you know how they came about?
Habits are powerful mechanisms that shape our daily lives. They are the invisible forces that influence our actions and decisions, often without us even realizing it — think about how you make a cup of coffee instinctively in the morning or eat candy on your afternoon commute.
At the core of habit formation lies a three-step loop: The cue, the routine, and the reward. Understanding how this loop works can provide valuable insights into how habits form and how to change them.
The Cue
The cue serves as the initial spark that ignites the habit loop. It’s a signal that prompts your brain to switch into an automatic mode that triggers a specific behavior.
Cues come in two primary forms: Internal and external.
Internal cues encompass thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations that can set off a habitual response. For example, feeling stressed might trigger you to eat junk food or grab a cigarette.
External cues, on the other hand, are environmental factors that initiate a habit. They can be as simple as a specific time of day, a particular location, or even the presence of a certain person. These cues act as reminders for your brain to engage in a particular behavior. For instance, passing by a coffee shop during your morning commute can trigger the habit of grabbing your daily cup of coffee.
The Routine
Once the cue has been recognized, it propels you into the routine which is the actual behavior that the habit loop revolves around.
Routines can be categorized into two types: Physical and mental.
Physical routines involve tangible actions performed by your body. These can range from mundane activities like brushing your teeth or having a cigarette to more complex actions like driving to work using a familiar route.
On the other hand, mental routines are less tangible but equally influential. It includes routines involving cognitive processes such as analyzing, planning, or rehearsing. For instance, if you habitually start your workday by outlining your tasks, you’re engaging in a mental routine that helps structure your day effectively. Similarly, you might beat yourself up mentally when you realize something isn’t going right.
The Reward
The final piece of the habit puzzle is the reward. It’s a positive outcome that follows the routine.
Rewards are what drive the habit loop, as they create a sense of satisfaction and reinforce the desire to repeat the behavior in the future. Like cues and routines, rewards can also be categorized as physical or mental.
Physical rewards are tangible and sensory, such as indulging in a piece of chocolate after a workout or experiencing the taste of your favorite meal. These rewards trigger the brain’s pleasure centers, associating the behavior with a sense of enjoyment.
Similarly, mental rewards play a significant role in habit formation. The feeling of accomplishment after completing a task or the reduction of stress following a meditation session can be powerful motivators that solidify habits.
The Habit Loop in Action
The cue-routine-reward loop is a continuous process that forms the foundation of habits.
Initially, the cue sparks the routine, and upon completing the routine, the brain receives a reward. Over time, as this loop is repeated, a habit becomes increasingly ingrained and the brain starts anticipating the reward as soon as the cue appears, making the behavior almost automatic.
Understanding the intricate interplay between cues, routines, and rewards provides valuable insights into how habits form and become an integral part of your life. By recognizing the cues that trigger certain behaviors, you can actively reshape routines and seek out alternative rewards and change your habits in this way.
Whether you need to break a bad habit or build a good habit, the cue-routine-reward loop offers a roadmap to navigate the complex terrain of habit formation and transformation.
How to Break Bad Habits
Once a habit is deeply ingrained, it might seem as if you will never get rid of it; however, with dedication and persistence, it is entirely feasible to overcome them. Let’s look at a few of these strategies.
Deconstruct the Habit Loop
Begin by pinpointing the cue — the trigger that initiates the habit — and the subsequent reward it provides. During high school, my smoking was triggered by being around my friends, and the reward was social acceptance; obviously, I can identify it now but didn’t see it back then.
By understanding what causes the habit, you can identify alternative ways of dealing with the triggering situation or seek out substitute rewards that are more conducive to your overall well-being. For instance, if stress makes you reach for unhealthy snacks, you can choose healthier snacks to replace habitual behavior.
Take Small Steps
Few people manage to stop a habit like I did with my smoking, but my drastic change came about because I had a rude awakening seeing my girlfriend smoking. In reality, it is much easier to make small incremental changes to break a bad habit.
If, for instance, you smoke a pack of cigarettes daily, try to smoke one less cigarette each day so that your mind and body have time to adapt to the change.
Find Positive Alternatives
Breaking a habit is easier when you introduce positive alternatives that align with your goals. Basically, you need to find a positive behavior to replace the bad one while still getting the same sense of satisfaction.
For example, if you feel you watch too much TV but the reward is relaxation, then substitute it with another relaxing activity like reading or exercising. It will redirect your focus and create a positive feedback loop.
How To Build Good Habits
Understanding how habits form also makes it easier to build good habits. Once again, use the habit loop to identify what your cue, behavior, and reward will be. If you know these details from the start, your brain will get used to the habit more quickly.
Start Small
The first step to making a positive change is realizing that small actions can have a huge impact over the long term. Forget about huge goals and rather focus on a small, attainable action.
For example, your goal might be to read more. A small action you can take is to plan on reading for 10 minutes before bed each night.
A tiny habit can help you to make a behavior part of your daily activities without leaving you overwhelmed by a massive goal.
Change Your Environment
When you’re trying to build a new habit, you need to create the right surroundings to help you succeed. Your environment should have tangible cues reminding you to take action.
Imagine, for instance, that the good habit you are working on is to exercise more. You could set up your gym equipment in a specific corner of your room or decide to take your workout clothes out of the closet the night before so you can see them first thing in the morning.
Be Kind to Yourself
As you start working on your habit, remember to be patient and kind to yourself.
Building a habit takes time, and it’s okay to slip up along the way; instead of getting discouraged, think of these moments as a learning opportunity. Use them to improve how you are doing things, especially if you find there is something lacking in the habit loop.
What matters most is that you keep going and stay strong even when you don’t feel like your new habit is getting anywhere. Be patient — you are creating an atmosphere that will allow your habits to stick no matter what you face.
Conclusion
Change is possible. That’s amazing!
You are capable of doing great things, so never let your bad habits get in your way of being a better version of yourself. The good thing is that you already know you need to make changes, and that’s a powerful position to be in. You are already priming your brain for something better.
Start small, stay positive, and be kind to yourself. Once you commit to change, nothing will be able to hold you back. Every little action counts!