Habits are small decisions you make and actions you perform every day. Duke University research suggests that habits leave a lasting mark on specific circuits in the brain. As a result, behavior becomes automated.
Habits can be both good and bad. Hygiene practices, like brushing your teeth, are great habits that keep you healthy. But bad habits also play a part in your life, perhaps like the chocolate that you can never resist.
In fact, life is a series of habits. Your daily activities make up what you accomplish, what you value, and how you respond. Habits often seem to happen without your input, but when you can learn to take control of your habits, you can transform your life.
Changing habits is not simple, though. The neuropathways formed in your brain need to be rewired to support new habits. Rewiring the brain requires deliberate and consistent effort, so the new neuropathways become ingrained.
You create neuropathways when you perform an action and receive a reward. Brushing your teeth rewards you with a clean mouth and the promise you’ll get fewer cavities. Eating chocolate rewards you with a delicious taste. Endorphins release with each reward. And the habit becomes a little more ingrained.
You can reshape your thoughts by understanding how habits and rewards relate. Following the steps below will help you on your way to creating and maintaining new habits.
1. Start Small
One of the most common mistakes people make when trying to build new habits is starting too big. You get excited about the new goal and throw yourself into it, but this will only last a short while until the newness wears off. Starting with a smaller goal and then building on it creates lasting success.
2. Get Specific with Your Habit
Be clear about what you want to change. The more specific, the easier it is to reprogram. Instead of saying, “I want to be healthier” say, “I want to stop eating chocolate after dinner” or “I want to go for a walk 5 days a week.” When you are specific, you can track your progress and measure success.
3. Identify What Habit You’d Like Instead
Every time you give up a habit, you form a different one. Think carefully about the habit you are willingly accepting so you can concentrate on that instead of the habit you are giving up. If you want to stop eating chocolate, replace it with a healthy snack or an activity you enjoy, like reading a book. Knowing what you will do instead provides focus.
4. Decide on a Reward
You partake in habits, even bad ones, because there is some reward you are seeking. When you decide on a reward, you can deliberately give yourself the reward each time you are successful. Maybe you reserve your favorite breakfast for only the mornings you get up and exercise before work. Or you give yourself a gold star on a calendar every day you choose a healthy snack over chocolate. Big or small, the reward makes you associate the new habit with a good feeling.
5. Now Implement
Now put these pieces together. Next time you crave a piece of chocolate or want to skip a planned workout, remind yourself of the habit you would like to have instead. Do the new small habit. Immediately give yourself the reward. The reward, even a gold star on a calendar, will give you a boost of dopamine and slowly build a new neuro-pathway.
Each time you do the small habit and receive the reward, you forge an alternative path. Like walking through a field, the pathway forms more fully with each pass. And because you’ve been successful, each time is easier than the last. Before you know it, a new habit forms.
