HOW TO FORM GOOD HABITS THAT STICK

The Science of Bad and Good Habits

Most of us know that we have some bad habits. But we also know the reason they’re bad. It’s because they are standing in the way of us achieving what we want in life. On the other hand, we know that we need to replace these with some good habits. Good habits empower us to make the transition to a better life a lot easier.

This is all well and good but the problem is that forming good habits and breaking bad ones is tough. It requires dedication and effort that most people are not prepared to commit to.

You know good habits will change your life for the better. But to really switch from bad to good habits, you need to understand how habits work. In this article, we will look at the science behind habits so that you can understand them better. By so doing you’ll increase your chances of making a successful change in your life.

Read: How to become a better you.

Habits have cues

All bad and good habits have cues. These are the things that trigger a specific habit within us. There are different categories of cues and the experts believe that they fall into five main categories which are:

• Your emotional state

• Specific times of the day

• What you see

• Where you are

• The influence of others

A habit is a neurological loop in your subconscious mind. When the right cue appears it will automatically trigger the habit. It is tough to change your response to these cues especially if you have habits that have been around for years. Most of the time we do not realize that our habits are being triggered by these cues.

There is always a routine

As soon as you experience the right cue then you will go through a routine. That means you will exhibit certain behavior or take specific actions. This is important because it provides you with the opportunity to replace a bad routine with a good routine.

Many psychological experts agree on the most effective way to switch from bad to good habits. Don’t just try to eliminate bad habits. Instead, try to replace it with good habits. As you know, nature abhors a vacuum. Replacement of bad with good routines makes more sense than leaving a vacuum.

Bad and good habits have rewards

All habits have a reward associated with them. You may not realize this but it is true. Each time you smoke a cigarette or eat junk food there is a reward attached to this. Smoking may make you feel relaxed or fit in socially, for example. Even good habits have rewards. For example, cleaning your teeth makes your mouth and breath feel fresh.

You crave rewards

The reason why you repeat your habits over and over is because you receive rewards that you crave. Whether bad or good habits, this craving strengthens it. The craving is a positive thing for good habits because it makes the habit stick. However, it is a negative for those bad habits because it will constantly nag at you to indulge in them.

You are now aware of the habit neurological loop that will help you to switch from bad to good habits. It is a matter of addressing the cues, routines, and rewards to make the changes that you desire.

Phases of Forming Bad and Good Habits.

People that are successful in life perform routines that support their success. You may have read that it takes approximately 21 days to form a new habit. That may be true, but there is more to it than that. It all depends on the individual person, the habit itself, and other circumstances. While there are generalities, bad and good habits don’t necessarily follow the same trajectories. A number of studies have concluded that it actually takes people 66 days on average to form a new habit.

There is a process involved in forming new habits. It is not just a matter of doing something consistently for 66 days. If only it was that easy! The following are the phases of forming bad and good habits.

Phase 1: Honeymoon

Imagine meeting someone and then falling in love with them. The world seems a much better place after this doesn’t it? Every new day is exciting. You are prepared to do anything to make this new person in your life happy. You never want this feeling to end but in the majority of cases it does, unfortunately.

Reality kicks in and things look different. You start to question whether you have made the right choice. The same can be said for forming bad or good habits. In the beginning, you are very excited about what this new habit will do for you. You work hard at it and feel great about it.

Then suddenly you get past this honeymoon stage and things don’t look so great anymore. It is now becoming a chore for you to keep your new habit going. Congratulations, you have just entered the critical stage.

Phase 2: Critical Stage

This is not called the critical phase for nothing. It is the time when reality really starts to kick in. You question whether the new habit is really worth your time. Unfortunately, this can be said more of the good habits than the bad ones.

Your motivation levels for the good habits are at their lowest during this phase. And if you don’t survive it then there is a real danger that your old bad habits will resurface. You must successfully navigate your way through the critical phase to continue and make your new good habits stick.

The best way to survive the critical stage is to do the following:

• Be aware that you have entered the critical phase.

• Ask yourself the right questions to refocus and take control of your emotions.

• Visualize the big picture – how continuing with this new habit will change your life for the better in the future.

Phase 3: Second Nature Phase

As you might expect, this phase means that your new habit has reached the sticking stage. For the new good habits, this is a great place to be, but you still need to be cautious. You do not want to fall foul of these things that can put you back in the critical phase:

• Getting discouraged.

• Having your new good habits interrupted.

• Feeling that you have already done enough.

Any one of these things can land you back in the critical stage. If you do end up back there then you need to keep fighting to get back in the second nature stage. After that, it is just a matter of carrying on until the new routine becomes an automatic habit. 

5 Reasons Why You Need To Form Good Habits

Your habits define you whether they are good or bad. So if you want to transform your life for the better then you want to form good habits. It is never easy to form a new good habit so you need inspiring reasons to do this. You are going to need a lot of motivation to truly form good habits. Thus, having a strong “why” is essential.

Some people struggle to come up with strong enough reasons to bring new good habits to life. If you’re one of them, use the following reasons for your motivation.

Your habits define you whether they are good or bad. So if you want to transform your life for the better then you want to form good habits.

Your habits truly define you

We have already mentioned this. A lot of people do not realize that their habits are who they are. Habits are something that you do regularly and are triggered in a number of different ways. Say for example you begin smoking today because of peer pressure. It means you’re the kind of person who does things just to fit in regardless of the consequences.

Not all habits are bad of course. When you wake up in the morning and take a shower and brush your teeth these are good habits to have.

Good habits are the key to changing your life for the better. If you are overweight then creating a new habit to eat more healthily or exercise regularly helps a great deal. There is no end to the new habits that you can form to make your life better.

It is possible to change from bad to good habits

Just because you have been indulging in a bad habit for a long time doesn’t mean you’re stuck in it. If you want to change any habit then you can do it. We are not saying that this is an easy thing to do but it is possible.

If you want to lose weight then take a close look at your eating habits. What do you eat for breakfast every day? If it is unhealthy then change it to something healthier. The same goes for lunch and dinner and eating those sugary snacks.

Achieve your goals with new good habits

Do you set challenging goals for yourself? If you don’t then you need to start doing this right now. Let’s say that you are tired of the way you look in the mirror. You are at least 20 pounds overweight and so you set yourself a goal to lose this weight.

The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make it a new habit. Find a diet plan that will satisfy you and make this a new habit. Post your new diet plan everywhere to remind you that this is the way you will live from now on. Remove temptations so you are less likely to go off the rails.

Create a new foundation for your life

You can use new habits to set a new direction for your life. Habits dominate our lives. Therefore, it is critical that we form the good habits and eliminate the wrong ones. If you want to live a life of gratitude then you need to make gratitude a habit in your life.

By choosing the right habits in your life you will create the foundation for a happy and healthy life. Think about your long term goals and form new habits that will totally support them.

With good habits, you need less motivation

There are going to be times when you just cannot find the motivation to go to the gym for example. When regular exercising is a habit for you the motivation will be automatic. You and you will just go there and get a good workout you know you need for a better life.

4 Simple Methods To Put An End To Bad Habits

Most people have some bad habits that they are not happy about and certainly not proud of. If you are in this situation then you can take comfort from the fact that you’re not alone. There are many other people facing the same dilemma.

All of your habits are ingrained deeply in your subconscious mind. And if they have been there for a while then stopping them is going to be incredibly tough for you. They happen on autopilot and most of the time we do not even know what triggers them.

So here we give you 4 simple methods that will help you to break your bad habits right away. We strongly encourage you to use these methods as you are going to need all of the help you can get. As stated earlier, the best way to break bad habits is to replace them with good habits.

What bad habit do you want to break?

You need to be aware of the bad habit that you need to break. It doesn’t matter if the habit is smoking, eating junk food, cursing, or procrastination. It is critical that you be specific about it when you are trying to break it.

Don’t overlook this step and think that it is too simplistic. It is essential that you are specific about the habit you wish to break if you want to be successful. If you want to get rid of an undesirable behavior you must put an unmistakable label on it.

Identify the rewards that the habit provides

As we discussed earlier, all bad habits have rewards. If you drink too much then you will get a reward from this. Maybe drinking provides you with a much-needed escape from the pressures of life? The same goes for smoking. Each time you smoke a cigarette it makes you relax and alleviates your stress.

The trouble is with these rewards is that they are temporary. They do not last very long so there is a tendency to crave the reward over and over again. Most people experience regret with their bad habits. This tends to make them feel stressed and make them want to turn to the habit more and more.

Know what triggers your bad habit

All bad habits have triggers and you need to identify what these are. Sometimes there will be one thing that consistently triggers a bad habit. But often there are a number of triggers. So take some time out to identify what these triggers are so that you know when and why they happen.

For example, if you are spending too many evenings in the bar drinking, think about what triggers this. Is it a result of having a stressful day at work? Is it because you crave the companionship of others that frequent the bar? This will make you more self-aware so that you can replace the bad behavior with something else.

Develop your mindfulness

To break bad habits and form good habits, make a commitment to indulge in mindfulness. When you do this you can approach breaking your bad habit as a great journey in your life. You are your worst and best critic. A change in your attitude to mindfulness will provide you with a greater chance of breaking your bad habit.

These four methods will help you to break your bad habits. Always be aware that the journey is not going to be easy. It will take a strong resolve to truly break a bad habit. Embrace these methods and free yourself from your bad habits forever.

Top Tips To Make Good Habits Stick

Wouldn’t it be great if everything in your life was completely automated? You would no longer have to remember to get up and go to work or do your daily chores. You would exercise regularly and eat the healthiest things. But unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way and you have to be involved in the process.

There is something that you can do to make your life a lot easier and a lot more rewarding though. You can form some good habits so that you tend to do the most important things in life automatically.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yes, it does but forming new good habits requires a lot of time, effort, and patience. If you don’t go about it the right way then your new habits will not stick. Here are some simple ways that you can make your new good habits stick.

Start in a simple way

A lot of people fall into the trap of trying to totally change their lives in a single day. It doesn’t work like that. When you are committed to forming new good habits in your life you will be very motivated at first. However, it is easy to lose your motivation if you are trying to make too many changes. Start off with small changes and then build from these.

Make a 90 day commitment

You will need to run a routine for at least 21 days to become comfortable with the change. To turn this into an automatic habit will require an average of 66 days. So we recommend that you make a 90-day commitment to your new habit. Ninety days is not a long time in the scheme of things and it will pass quickly.

Start a daily routine

The best way to make a new habit stick is to be consistent with it. You want to create a new daily routine which includes your new habit. So if the new habit you want to form is regular exercise then participate in some form of exercise every day.

Don’t go crazy here. The secret is to stop exercising before you’re even remotely tired. That way you’ll look forward to repeating the same thing the next day.

You do not want to join a gym and commit to completing a full workout each day. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Find a form of exercise that is beneficial that you can easily do at home. Gradually migrate to going to the gym a few times a week.

Create a reminder system

It is important that you never lose sight of why you are forming a new habit. The stronger your reason for creating new habits in your life the better. So create a reminder system.

It should always remind you of why you are putting in this additional effort and making sacrifices. Write down your reason for making the change and make this strong for example.

Remove things that will tempt you back into bad ways

You will help yourself enormously if you remove temptations that could push you back into your bad habits. Let’s say you’re changing your diet to a healthy eating plan for example. One thing you’ll need to do is to get rid of all those forbidden foods from your kitchen.

Conclusion

Humans are habitual creatures. A lot of habits come from our subconscious mind. We don’t even realize when we form them as they’re so ingrained in our culture.

Forming new good habits is a tough thing to do. So give yourself all of the help that you need by following these tips. With practice, these guidelines will become second nature and will make the difference between success and failure in your life.

Further reading:

How To Become A Better Person

How To Stop Bad Habits And Form Good Ones

Habits: How they form and how they break them