Forming good habits: the easy way to the good life
Nail biting, fidgeting, smoking, too much television … everyone has some kind of bad habit that they would like to break and, if possible, put a good habit in its place. Don’t worry, help is at your fingertips! Once we understand the nature of habits, we can continue to influence our own psychological behavior and be on our way to a life of positive habits that actually do more good than harm.
Studies reveal that up to 45% of what we do every day is habitual. Most of us are performing the same actions almost mindlessly in the same place or at the same time every day, usually due to subtle cues. When we think of the word “habit”, our mind tends to adopt less pleasant patterns of behavior such as those mentioned above. But habits don’t have to be bad. In fact, creating good habits is critical to success. Adopting certain habits like exercise, healthy eating, and meditation can be transformative.
The nature of habits
Through experimentation and observation, social scientists have learned that certain behaviors can be linked to habitual cues. For example, the urge to check your email or reach for the bag of chips is probably a habit with a specific prompt.
The researchers found that most signals fall into four broad categories: a specific location or time of day, a certain series of actions, particular moods, or the company of specific people. The need for fries, for example, probably happens after you get home from work, maybe you’ve had a bad day, and you’re watching TV.
Dr. Wood, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, studied exercise habits among students transferring from one university to another. When the locations remained similar (the new school had an outdoor track like the old one, for example), the students continued to run regularly. But if the tracks were too different, his exercise routine slowed down most of the time.
In another experiment, where researchers were studying smokers, those who wanted to quit were more than twice as successful if they started to quit during the holidays, when they were in a different context, away from people and places that act like triggers.
According to Dr. Wood, “Habits are formed when memory associates specific actions with specific places or moods. If you eat potato chips regularly while sitting on the couch, after a while, looking at the couch will automatically tell you that look for the Doritos. ” These associations are sometimes so strong that it is necessary to replace the sofa with a wooden chair for the diet to be successful. “
Habits, whether good or bad, make us who we are.
The key is to control them. If you understand how habits work, you can use this knowledge to create good habits, and this can change your life.
Here are some tips inspired by Scott Young to help you create good habits:
- A habit for 30 days. Try to focus on one change you want to make for 30 days. Thirty days is roughly the amount of time it takes for a behavior to become conditioned, to become a habit.
- Replace lost needs. You cannot quit habits without replacing the needs they satisfy. For example, cutting down on television probably means that you will have to find a new way to relax and get information. In this case, you can try going for a walk and then reading the newspaper. But be sure not to substitute one bad habit for another, such as quitting smoking just to overeat.
- Avoid bad habit triggers. As much as possible, try to avoid triggers that you associate with your bad habits. And if you are trying to create good habits, you can use the trigger effect to your advantage. For example, buy a mixer and place it on the counter to help you make a healthy breakfast shake every morning.
- Feedback balance. The difference between a long-term change and giving up on the 31st is the balance of feedback. If your change creates more pain in your life than joy, it will be difficult to fulfill it. Find diets, exercise routines, financial plans, and work routines that will work for you in the long run.
- Get leverage. Give a friend a hundred dollars on the condition that they return it to you only when you have completed 30 days without fail. Make a public commitment to everyone you know that you will stick with it. Also offer yourself a reward if you do it for a month (and you do it every month).
- Keep it simple. Your change should include one or two rules, not a dozen. Exercising three times a week for at least 40 minutes is easy to follow. Designing an elaborate yoga, climbing, and swimming workout routine on specific days of the week is tricky. Complexity is a headache and you could be setting yourself up for failure if other things come up, like travel, meetings, etc.
- One habit at a time. Don’t try to change everything at once. This is too much pressure. Enter a habit and work on it until it becomes automatic and then move on to the next habit. Successful introduction of one habit gives you the confidence to move on to the next.
- Consistency is key. The point of a habit is that it requires no thought. Make sure your habit is as consistent as possible and repeats every day for 30 days. This will ensure that your habit is properly conditioned.
