Whether we know it or not, our lives are driven by habits. Just take a second and think about the actions you do daily that you don’t even have to think about…brushing your teeth, checking your phone, driving to work (was that light even green?!), making your morning cup of coffee, you get the point. Building habits is our brain’s way of keeping itself sane. If we had to think about every little thing we did, we’d be making millions of decisions a day, and probably get absolutely nothing done. Habits are life saving, as long as we use them correctly. But if you’re like, human…it’s likely you’ve developed a bad habit or two that you just can’t seem to kick.
Habits are powerful. If you don’t believe me, try changing up your morning routine and see how “off” you feel the rest of the day. The influence habits have over us are what make them so hard to break. But luckily, by learning how habits work we can break the ones that are getting in our way and build new ones that can support us in achieving our goals.
In order to understand habits, it’s important to understand the habit feedback loop (see below).
All of our habits, whether consciously or subconsciously operate off of this feedback loop. We pick up a cue from our environment and this cue creates a craving. We satisfy our craving with a response (the habit), which then provides us with a reward. This reward satisfies our cravings and eventually gets associated with the cue, causing the loop to start all over again next time we encounter the cue. Let’s look at an example of stress eating. One day at work you get called into a meeting with your boss that turns out to be very stressful. You leave the office feeling anxious and worried (your emotional state here is your “cue”). Of course, this is an uncomfortable feeling, so you try and find a way to alleviate this emotion (“craving”). You remember someone brought cake into the lunch room today so you go and have a piece (“response”). After enjoying this delicious cake, your brain gets a spike of dopamine and you feel a bit happier and more relaxed (“reward”). Next time you’re experiencing stress, you’ll reach for another sugary treat to achieve the reward of alleviating these feelings and becoming more relaxed.
Does this sound familiar? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Building awareness of your own feedback loop is the first step in breaking it! Once you become aware of your habit loop, you’ll need to use the next 5 tips to break your bad habits for good!
Make it invisible: As we learned in our feedback loop, “cues” (also called “triggers”) are what start off a habit. By understanding the cues that trigger your bad habits you can understand how to break them. If you have a habit of eating a bag of potato chips upon coming home from work (the “cue” being the bag of potato chips on your counter), make the cue invisible by either not buying the bag of chips, or keeping them in the cabinet. Next time you’re engaging in a bad or ineffective habit, try to become aware of the cue that started it. If possible, make this cue invisible. Structure your environment that hides the cues that trigger your bad habits, and displays the cues that trigger your good habits (more on this next week).
Make it unattractive: This rule is completely done within your own mind. Using the potato chip example, reframe your mindset as to why this habit is unattractive to you. This can be done in several ways. For example, maybe calculate how much money you spend on potato chips weekly and once you’ve come up with that number, figure out what else you could do with that money. You could also look into the ingredients in the bag of potato chips to really become aware of what it is you’re putting in your body. One bag of Utz Salt N’ Vinegar potato chips has 1,200 calories, 72g of fat, 120g of carbs, and includes ingredients like malic acid, citric acid, and fumaric acid (if this doesn’t seem unattractive to you yet…go ahead and Google those ingredients real quick). Once you’ve reframed your mindset to make your bad habit unattractive, it may be a bit easier to break.
Make it difficult: If the bag of potato chips is sitting right out on the counter, it’s a very simple 1-2 step to grab them and begin eating them when you get home. If you don’t buy a bag of potato chips when you go to the store, you suddenly have increased the number of steps it will take in order to engage in this bad habit. Now instead of simply getting the bag of chips off of the counter when you get home, you’ll have to stop by the store after work to buy them! Put as many steps as you can between your normal routine and the ability of carrying out your bad habits!
Choose a substitute: It can be very difficult to break a bad habit when we feel an empty void in the time that we would normally be engaging in our unhealthy habits. When you get home from work you might be hungry which prompts you to eat the bag of chips. Without purposely substituting this habit, it can be easy to give in to that hunger and go to the store to get a bag of chips, or reach for another unhealthy snack that you have in the cabinets. Try substituting the bag of chips with a healthy alternative like a piece of fruit, healthy popcorn, or if you enjoy the saltiness of the chips, a homemade trail mix with nuts and seeds.
Create accountability: Embarking on a journey of change can be difficult when those around you are unaware of your ambition, or engaging themselves in the exact habits you are working to break. If you want to break the bag of chips habit but your significant other enjoys having chips in the house and on the counters, it can be tempting (and some people would argue…inevitable) to give in to this habit. By communicating to the people closest to you your goal of breaking your habit, they can help you by: holding you responsible for your actions, constructing an environment that supports your habits, or even embarking on the journey along with you.
“People don’t decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.”! Creating and maintaining good healthy habits is imperative to achieving any goal, whether performance or health related. Take some time this week to become aware of what your unhealthy habits are, and what the habit trigger loop looks like for each one. Once you’re aware, use some of these tips to help to break your bad habits, and check back next week to learn how to build good habits!