How to Break a Habit and Hack the Habit Loop
Is there something that you just love or can’t stop doing on a
daily basis? Maybe you absolutely have to start your day with a coffee or you
won’t be able to function. Or, you need to go for a run every evening. Perhaps
it is something more subtle, like twirling your hair whenever you’re in deep
thought, or tapping your fingers whenever you’re feeling impatient.
Take some time now to think about something specific that you
find yourself doing all the time. How did that habit form? Is it something you
want to continue doing, or is it something you’d rather do away with? And most
importantly, how is it affecting your life?
When it comes to habits and routines, most people want to learn
how to be in control of them. Whether it’s trying to quit smoking, maintaining
a healthy diet or going to bed early, habits can be hard to control. They are
really quite sneaky since they are behaviors that develop and occur
subconsciously; yet they also have the biggest impact in the outcome of our
successes, whether you realize it or not.
Habits Govern Your Life!
Many people don’t consider habits as a key factor of their
personal success because they simply see them as routines. Habits are either
good or bad–and that’s as far as most people would go. They don’t necessarily
make the connection to personal success.
This is because most people put emphasis on external factors
when looking at success. They may consider luck, educational or family
background when determining success. While habits are largely internal, they
are often overlooked.
The truth is, habits are a core factor that govern almost every
aspect of our lives. They account for the vast majority of our actions on a
daily basis from big to small: your morning routine, where you typically have
lunch, or even the route you take to work and back home. These are all habits!
If you’re someone who has strong willpower, or a high threshold
of discipline, then great! You might find that breaking a bad habit or sticking
to a new good habit is not too hard. But for the vast majority of us, that can
be a real issue.
Thankfully, habits don’t rely only on one’s willpower.
Successful people are able to actively steer their habits, and use them as a
tool to create consistent and systematic inputs or actions towards an output or
outcome that they want to achieve.
So how does one break a habit?
Deconstructing a Habit
Thankfully, habits can be tamed; and, once you gain full control
over them, you’re going to realize their true potential in steering your life
towards greater achievement and progress.
So, let me deconstruct a habit for you.
The way in which a habit is formed can be described as a Habit
Loop. This is a cycle that governs how every habit forms and
functions.
It’s made up of three key components:
1. Cue
2. Routine
3. Reward
A Cue
A Cue is something that triggers your habit. It
might be an event, an action, a feeling, people, or even an emotional state.
A Routine
A Routine is the behavior that follows after
your habit has been triggered. Because habits are on ‘autopilot’, a routine is
usually the same sequence of actions that is taken each and every time.
A Reward
A Reward is the positive reinforcement your
brain identifies with the Routine that you’ve just taken. It
associates the Routine with the Cue; so, your
brain remembers to repeat the behavior again in order to get the same Reward in
the future.
Looking at this simple loop, you can see that the culprit of any
bad habit starts from the Cue. That is what triggers the start
of the Habit Loop.
Let’s use a popular example of a bad habit: Smoking.
Perhaps you might be feeling stressed (Cue) after a long
meeting; you decide to take a little break and light up a cigarette (Routine).
While smoking, you start feeling calm and relaxed from the nicotine rush,
giving you a physical sensation of satisfaction (Reward). As a result,
you continue with this routine every time you feel stressed or want to unwind.
Here, you can see that Cues are the starting
point for each time you go through a Habit Loop. Theoretically, without
the Cue to trigger your habit, your Routine or
behavior won’t follow… and the Reward will not be attained.
When any part of the Habit Loop is broken, that’s a potential weak point, which
you can utilize to help you break your habit.
It’s Time to Take Control of Your Cues
This means that the first step to controlling your habits is to
take control of your Cues. Go back to the specific habit that I
asked you to think of in the beginning. Can you identify the cue that kicks off
your habit?
Now, think of another habit that you have. Of the 2 habits that
you’ve identified, which one is more prominent in your daily life? Now compare
the 2 potential cues for each habit. Are they different in nature?
Since Cues are the beginning spark for any
habit to form, one of the main reasons habits are unequal is because they each
have a different Quality of Cues. Some Cuesare
just more effective than others. The more Regular a cue is,
the more likely the habit will form. The more Stable a cue is,
in that it is seldom affected by external factors, it is also more likely the
habit will form.
And, while we’re talking about regularity and stability, time is
of the essence. Theshorter the time frame that a cue repeats, the more
effective a Cue becomes.Anything more than a week means
a Cue becomes a lot less effective.
Ready to Break the Habit Loop?
By now, I hope you can see that every element in the Habit Loop
feeds and reinforces each other, creating a snowball effect. A habit becomes
stronger as you repeat it more times. By understanding and tackling the first
part of the Habit Loop – the Cue, you’re already one step closer to
controlling your habits!
If you want to continue on this journey of controlling your
habits, why not subscribe to our newsletter? With it, you can learn more to
equip yourself with new ways of taming those unwanted habits and help you
cultivate new ones!
Leon Ho
https://www.lifehack.org/810887/how-to-break-a-habit
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