New Year, New You - Habits Can be the Secret to Success
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
What drives the behaviors you carry out each day? In many cases they are driven by habits we have formed over time from different environments. We do not just have bad habits we want to change, we also maintain positive habits that help us win at life each day. The real questions may be how are habits formed and what can we do to change or influence them?
There are plenty of myths related to the formation of new habits. The most popular myth is that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Most people believe that habits are formed by completing a task for 21 days in a row. Twenty-one days of task completion, then voila, a habit is formed. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. The 21-day myth began as a misinterpretation of Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s work on self-image. Maltz did not find that 21 days of task completion forms a habit. People wanted it to be true so much so, however, that the idea began to grow in popularity.1
According to Charles Duhigg, author of the excellent The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, states “individuals and habits are all different, and so the specifics of diagnosing and changing the patterns in our lives differ from person to person and behavior to behavior.”
The Habit Loop
Habits follow a pattern in how they come to be. Duhigg goes into depth about each of these three in his book. I will share a simple explanation below so we have a common understanding.
Cue
Habits are triggered by something within or around us. It could the time day, the place, or the activity we just completed. Many smokers have a habit of grabbing a cigarette right after eating a meal. Eating the meal is the ‘cue’ for the smoke break that follows. Immediately after waking up, arriving to your home or office are other examples of cues that will lead to next actions.
Routine
The cue triggers activities or behaviors that make up the routine. This is what I do when I arrive home. This is what I do after I eat lunch. The routine is the component that we want to manage. If we want to change something we consider negative, we need to adjust the routine to have a more positive outcome. If my cue is after finishing dinner I always eat a cookie as dessert, and I want to lose weight, then we need to adjust the routine that follows the cue.
Reward
This is the feeling we get from completing the routine. In the example above, the sweet taste of the cookie is the reward for completing the activity. Understanding what the real reward is for the situation you want to adjust is key to making the adjustment. Do I eat the cookie because I crave the sweet taste or am I still hungry? Determining that will help lead to a successful adjustment of the routine. Rewards can be emotional, physical, or a combination of the two. The feeling of additional energy and happiness after completing a morning run is the reward for my habit of running two miles on the treadmill.
Making Adjustments to Habits
With a good understanding of the habit loop, you can take action on the changes you want to make. Here are three steps to making adjustments to your habits and outcomes.
Define what your want to change- what are you setting out to accomplish? This could be tied to your personal or professional goals, but start with what it is you want to change. If we use a weight loss example, I may want to change the fact that I am eating cookies after dinner each night.
Why is it important to you - quickly define the ‘why’ factor for yourself. Be specific. If I eat fewer cookies I will lose some weight, I will feel better about myself, I will be able to exercise more, and I will be able to participate more actively with my young children. This is no different from any goal you set for yourself. Ensure there is a meaning to what you are undertaking beyond the desire of changing for change’s sake.
Take small steps- don’t try to change your world all in one step. Look for the baby steps to take that will lead to something bigger in time. In our example above, we are not changing our entire diet, we are simply eliminating the cookie after dinner. The small steps will set us up for success and help us understand more about the routines and rewards we have established in our current behaviors. We may find that we do want something sweet after dinner to satisfy a craving, but we could change the cookie to an apple and have a better outcome towards our goal. It is much easier to start down this path than to make a broad statement that says I am going to cut all sugar out of my diet.
If you want help in getting started with taking very small, basic steps to create new routines, I recommend visiting TinyHabits.com
Changing a habit is not an easy undertaking. It will take work, both in understanding what drives your current behaviors and determining whether your routines or rewards need to be changed. The benefits can be immense; new habits that help you feel better, perform better, and achieve your goals will lead to lasting success that can be applied in all facets of your life.
Where will your start in creating positive habits in your life?
Additional Resources
Books
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts--Becoming the Person You Want to Be
Articles
Habit Formation: The 21 Day Myth
How Habits Work - Charles Duhigg
Four Common Myths About Habits, Debunked
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- Habit Formation: The 21-Day Myth - Forbes.com - https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonselk/2013/04/15/habit-formation-the-21-day-myth/#23f187b4debc ↩