Habits: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

As a long time student of psychology and sociology, one of the hardest truths I’ve had to swallow is that your beliefs don’t make you a better person, rather your behaviour does.

While the focus of these two disciplines is to unearth the underlying beliefs, motivations and intentions that drive human behaviour, the hard truth is that the average person we interact with on any given day won’t make the effort to identify what drives our behaviour. Rather they will make inferences based simply on what they observe and react accordingly.

This means that ultimately the responsibility remains with us to ensure that our behaviours are a true reflection of what we want to communicate to others. The hard part of course is that often our behaviours are so automatic that we aren’t even always aware of them. Many of our responses have become engrained habits that we are unaware of and struggle to change.

So what is a habit? Simply put a habit is a behaviour that we chose to do at some point, then repeated it, found some kind of reward in it and then did it again. And again. And again. Until it became an entrenched behaviour that is repeated pretty much involuntarily.

So how do habits work? Charles Duhigg tells us in his book ‘The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business’  that the brain, when left to its own devices, will try to make any routine into a habit. It does this to allow our minds to ramp down more often. This allows the brain to operate more efficiently by shifting the focus from basic behaviours to more creative and inventive activities.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have established that at the core of every habit is a three-step loop in our brains: (1) cue, (2) routine and (3) reward.

The cue is the trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then comes the routine, which can be physical, mental or emotional in nature. And finally, there is a reward, which tells your brain whether this is a behaviour loop which is worth remembering for the future.

So can habits be changed? Neurological studies have shown that habits actually result in the creation of physical neural pathways in the brain. Once created these pathways never disappear. However, newer neural pathways can override older ones. So what does this mean? Simply put it means that while it’s not entirely possible to get rid of a bad habit it is possible to change it and replace it with a better habit.

To change a habit, you need to break it down into its components i.e. cue, routine and reward. Cues can fit into one of five categories: (1) location, (2) time, (3) emotional state, (4) other people, and (5) the immediately preceding action. The routine will be the exact sequence of events that follow the cue. This will be a set of actions that remains unchanged and is repeated routinely when triggered. When identifying the reward you need to determine exactly what need or craving your habit is satisfying. To identify the real reward can require some experimentation – so change various elements in your routine and identify the degree to which it alters the experience, this will help you identify what the actual reward is.

Once you’ve identified the reward you can determine alternative behaviours which will allow you to achieve the same reward without the negative consequences of the original bad habit.

Your next step is to formalise the new habit by writing is as follows: When [insert your cue], I will [insert better routine], because it provides me with [insert your reward]. Place your plan somewhere where it is visible to you and review it often. Make a conscious effort to repeat you plan whenever you encounter you cue. Over time and with constant repetition the behaviour will eventually become automatic. If it fails to do so you may find that you haven’t correctly identified the reward and/or the routine may need to be adapted to better suit your particular context.

Is this an easy process? No – it takes time, conscious effort and dedication – but ultimately the rewards will be worth it. Word of warning, don’t set yourself up for failure by setting yourself goals that are way too high – break your ultimate goal into smaller achievable ones and match the habits you want to achieve in accordance with these smaller goals.

For further information or assistance in habit formation and change feel free to contact us – we’re ready and waiting to assist you on your journey of change!

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