Did you know that your habits can actually ruin your entire life if you don't control and direct them correctly? Did you know that your habits are actually more influential over your entire personality and behavior than anything else? Well, they are! And that's why you need to understand your own habits and start using them to your advantage.
Did you know that your daily actions and behaviors are actually a series of habits you have formed rather than a series of conscious decisions you are making? Even though each small habit means relatively little on its own - over time - the food we eat, how often we exercise, how we interact with our family and friends, whether we save or spend our money, how often and for long we spend studying, how we organize our thoughts, and how our entire lives are arranged are totally a product of our habits. Our habits therefore have enormous impacts on our health, our relationships, our productivity, our financial well-being, and our overall happiness. In fact, our habits impact everything we do.
Your habits are called upon when your behavior becomes automatic and the decision-making process is not required. Your brain will convert a series of actions in to what is known as a routine. These routines are happening all the time without you being aware of them. For example, how to make your bed, how to bathe yourself, how to get dressed, how to pack your bag, how to feed yourself and how to get to the bus stop to get to school or work are not actions you need to re-learn each day. You just do them on autopilot don't you? So what makes these routines develop?
There are three things that are required to form a habit. They are a cue (for example, "I feel hungry"), a routine (for example, "Time to eat a cookie") and a reward (for example, "I'm full and satisfied"). When you go through these three steps a number of times you will have created a habit loop for yourself.
Unfortunately, habits aren't always helpful. Why? Well, your brain doesn't know the difference between good and bad habits. All it knows is the habit loop. It doesn't know whether your loops make you fit or whether they make you fat. It doesn't know whether the loop makes you smart or whether it makes you dumb. To the brain it's just a sequence that it responds to.
But that's not all. Habits actually supersede your "common sense". So even if you know the habit is bad for you (such as smoking, cursing or not doing work you need to complete) the habit loop will override your desire to "do the right thing" and will just keep responding to the cue. Don't believe me? A smoker knows that smoking is killing them (and yes they are usually addicted to nicotine) but there are many ways to get the hit of nicotine they are craving. It's actually the habit they have formed that they now can't control - because habits override everything.
So, how do we use our new knowledge of the habit loop to our advantage? How do we take control of our habit loops? How do we create new routines that overpower existing habits and become our new automatic behaviors? The answer is actually quite simple. The so called "golden rule" of habits is that if you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Problem solved! Well, not quite!
In order to change a habit you must address the craving you have by inserting a new behavior. All else must remain constant. In practice, changing habit loops work like this: you have a cue (I'm hungry), then you have a routine (eat a cookie), and then you have a reward (I'm full). But remember, when changing the loop, the cue and reward always stays constant but the routine changes. So, you simply change the routine. Cue (I'm hungry), routine (eat an apple - not a cookie), and gain your reward (I'm full).
Clearly this example is a simplified version of how the habit loop works. But nonetheless, being able to master shifting your routine will completely change your life. Habits loops exist everywhere when you look for them. If you look for them you will notice a cue, a routine and a reward. You will also notice habits that are helping you and habits that are harming you. But you now know that the transformation of a habit relies solely on changing the routine.
Now that you understand habits and how to transform them it is up to you to do something about yours. If you want more time, change your routines. If you want better results, change your routines. If you want to get fit, change your routines. If you want more money, change your routines. You have now been shown that you have total control over your actions and it's up to you to get to work on those habits that aren't helping you. Don't forget that your habits will undoubtedly determine your success. So what are you going to do about it? Good luck!
Did you know that your daily actions and behaviors are actually a series of habits you have formed rather than a series of conscious decisions you are making? Even though each small habit means relatively little on its own - over time - the food we eat, how often we exercise, how we interact with our family and friends, whether we save or spend our money, how often and for long we spend studying, how we organize our thoughts, and how our entire lives are arranged are totally a product of our habits. Our habits therefore have enormous impacts on our health, our relationships, our productivity, our financial well-being, and our overall happiness. In fact, our habits impact everything we do.
Your habits are called upon when your behavior becomes automatic and the decision-making process is not required. Your brain will convert a series of actions in to what is known as a routine. These routines are happening all the time without you being aware of them. For example, how to make your bed, how to bathe yourself, how to get dressed, how to pack your bag, how to feed yourself and how to get to the bus stop to get to school or work are not actions you need to re-learn each day. You just do them on autopilot don't you? So what makes these routines develop?
There are three things that are required to form a habit. They are a cue (for example, "I feel hungry"), a routine (for example, "Time to eat a cookie") and a reward (for example, "I'm full and satisfied"). When you go through these three steps a number of times you will have created a habit loop for yourself.
Unfortunately, habits aren't always helpful. Why? Well, your brain doesn't know the difference between good and bad habits. All it knows is the habit loop. It doesn't know whether your loops make you fit or whether they make you fat. It doesn't know whether the loop makes you smart or whether it makes you dumb. To the brain it's just a sequence that it responds to.
But that's not all. Habits actually supersede your "common sense". So even if you know the habit is bad for you (such as smoking, cursing or not doing work you need to complete) the habit loop will override your desire to "do the right thing" and will just keep responding to the cue. Don't believe me? A smoker knows that smoking is killing them (and yes they are usually addicted to nicotine) but there are many ways to get the hit of nicotine they are craving. It's actually the habit they have formed that they now can't control - because habits override everything.
So, how do we use our new knowledge of the habit loop to our advantage? How do we take control of our habit loops? How do we create new routines that overpower existing habits and become our new automatic behaviors? The answer is actually quite simple. The so called "golden rule" of habits is that if you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Problem solved! Well, not quite!
In order to change a habit you must address the craving you have by inserting a new behavior. All else must remain constant. In practice, changing habit loops work like this: you have a cue (I'm hungry), then you have a routine (eat a cookie), and then you have a reward (I'm full). But remember, when changing the loop, the cue and reward always stays constant but the routine changes. So, you simply change the routine. Cue (I'm hungry), routine (eat an apple - not a cookie), and gain your reward (I'm full).
Clearly this example is a simplified version of how the habit loop works. But nonetheless, being able to master shifting your routine will completely change your life. Habits loops exist everywhere when you look for them. If you look for them you will notice a cue, a routine and a reward. You will also notice habits that are helping you and habits that are harming you. But you now know that the transformation of a habit relies solely on changing the routine.
Now that you understand habits and how to transform them it is up to you to do something about yours. If you want more time, change your routines. If you want better results, change your routines. If you want to get fit, change your routines. If you want more money, change your routines. You have now been shown that you have total control over your actions and it's up to you to get to work on those habits that aren't helping you. Don't forget that your habits will undoubtedly determine your success. So what are you going to do about it? Good luck!
About the Author:
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