How do habits change?
THE GOLDEN RULE OF HABIT CHANGE
You Can’t Extinguish a Bad Habit, You Can Only Change It.
HOW IT WORKS: USE THE SAME CUE. PROVIDE THE SAME REWARD. CHANGE THE ROUTINE.
If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as part of a group. Belief is essential, and it grows out of a communal experience, even if that community is only as large as two people.
The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response (routine), which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits. This cycle is known as the habit loop.
Practical steps to change your habits
HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT
First rule (Cue): Make it obvious
Second rule (Craving): Make it attractive
Third rule (Response): Make it easy
Fourth rule (Reward): Make it satisfying
Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself:
How can I make it obvious?
How can I make it attractive?
How can I make it easy?
How can I make it satisfying?
First Rule: Make It Obvious
Before we can effectively build new habits, we need to get a handle on our current ones. This can be more challenging than it sounds because once a habit is firmly rooted in your life, it is mostly nonconscious and automatic. If a habit remains mindless, you can’t expect to improve it.
Exercise: THE HABITS SCORECARD
OR VIDEO
All habits serve you in some way—even the bad ones—which is why you repeat them. For this exercise, categorize your habits by how they will benefit you in the long run. Generally speaking, good habits will have net positive outcomes. Bad habits have net negative outcomes.
Here is a question: “Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?” Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity are usually bad.
There is no need to change anything at first. The goal is to simply notice what is actually going on. Observe your thoughts and actions without judgment or internal criticism.
The Second Rule: Make It Attractive
Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit-forming—taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media—is associated with higher levels of dopamine. The same can be said for our most basic habitual behaviors like eating food, drinking water, having sex, and interacting socially. When it comes to habits: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it.
The habit stacking + temptation bundling formula is:
After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].
The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming. Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act. It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to act. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike. Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
The Third Rule: Make It Easy
If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. You don’t need to map out every feature of a new habit. You just need to practice it. And the most effective way to make practice happen is to make it so easy that you’ll do it even when you don’t feel like it. If you can make your good habits more convenient, you’ll be more likely to follow through on them.
The idea behind make it easy is not to only do easy things. The idea is to make it as easy as possible in the moment to do things that payoff in the long run.
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THE TWO-MINUTE RULE
When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.
You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:
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“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
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“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
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“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”
The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. This is a powerful strategy because once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.
Exercise: That’s how you follow the Two-Minute Rule.
The Forth Rule: Make It Satisfying
We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. With our bad habits, the immediate outcome usually feels good, but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits, it is the reverse: the immediate outcome is unenjoyable, but the ultimate outcome feels good.
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In the beginning, you need a reason to stay on track. This is why immediate rewards are essential. They keep you excited while the delayed rewards accumulate in the background.
What can you do?
Open a savings account and label it for something you want. Whenever you pass on a purchase, put the same amount of money in the account. Skip your morning latte? Transfer $5. Pass on another month of Netflix? Move $10 over. Or taking a bubble bath or going on a leisurely walk are good examples of rewarding yourself with free time, which aligns with your ultimate goal of more freedom and financial independence.
The best way to start a new habit
How to
create
a habit
During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME] in [PLACE].
The two most common cues are time and location.
Broadly speaking, the format for creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.”
The simple way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
For example:
Reading. I will read for 10 minutes at 10 p.m. in my bedroom.
Exercise. I will exercise for 20 min. at 7 p.m. in my local gym.
Marriage. I will make my partner a cup of tea at 8 a.m. in the kitchen.
One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.
The habit stacking formula is:
“After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
For example:
Meditation. After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.
Exercise. After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes.
Gratitude. After I sit down to dinner, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened today.
Exercises
How long does it take to form a habit?
Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity.
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All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behavior, a process known as automaticity. Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over.
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What really matters is the rate at which you perform the behavior. You could do something twice in thirty days, or two hundred times. It’s the frequency that makes the difference.
Aim for small and manageable behavior changes - failure can be discouraging.
Small steps: walk one or two stops more before getting on the bus than to walk the entire route
Small changes benefit health
Simpler actions become habitual more quickly
Forming one ‘small’ healthy habit increases self-confidence for working towards other health-promoting habits
Important to know: How to Stay Motivated?
The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you will quickly become bored. It’s too easy. You’ll win every point. In contrast, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, you will quickly lose motivation because the match is too difficult. Humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.
Maximum motivation occurs when facing a challenge of just manageable difficulty. The optimal level is the midpoint between boredom and anxiety.
The spot of desire occurs at a 50/50 split between success and failure. Half of the time you get what you want. Half of the time you don’t. You need just enough “winning” to experience satisfaction and just enough “wanting” to experience desire. If you’re already interested in a habit, working on challenges of just manageable difficulty is a good way to keep things interesting.