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.
The actions, behaviors and feelings you engage in each day are actually not conscious decisions you are making - they are a result of your well formed habits. Now, each habit is only small on it's own but when you add them all together it ends up impacting everything you do. What you eat, whether you exercise, how you handle stress, how much you study, how much you work, how you relate to your family and friends, how you deal with different situations, and pretty much how your entire life operates from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep, are all habits.
Habits occur when we stop making "decisions" and our behavior become automatic. This happens when the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine. We have hundreds of these routines that we rely on every day. For example, how to brush your teeth, how to get dressed, how to use your cell phone, how to drive a car, how to make a sandwich (how to do absolutely anything!) You don't have to re-learn how to do these things each day - you just do them automatically! But how do the routines emerge?
There are three elements required to create a routine that creates a habit. They are: cue (such as "I'm hungry"), routine (such as "I'll eat a cookie") and reward ("I'm full and content"). When anyone passes through this sequence enough times (cue, routine and reward) they will create a habit. This sequence is called the habit loop.
The big problem with habits is that your brain has no idea which habits are helpful to you and which are harmful to you. Your brain only understands the command of the habit loop - cue, routine, and reward. If there is a cue the brain will seek to employ the routine to achieve the reward. But the habit loop could actually be making you fat. The habit loop could be making you dumb. The habit loop could be embarrassing you. But again, your brain doesn't know the difference - it's just a sequence after all.
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!
But how does this work in practice? To change your habits you need to master the art of creating new behaviors. But what does that mean? Well, if we use the cookie example again it would look like this: there is a cue ("I'm so hungry!"), a routine ("I will eat an apple" (not a cookie)) and a reward ("I'm full and content"). As this example shows, the loop has changed but the cue and the reward have remained the same. The routine is the only thing that changes. Instead of eating a cookie to become full we have suggested eating an apple.
In this case we have used a simple example of eating an apple instead of a cookie. This is obviously simplifying the habit. But the process is the same. The loop is always the same. There is a cue, a routine and a reward. Focus on changing your routine and you will transform your habit. It truly is that simple - and that difficult!
You now have enough information to recognize your habits and then make a purposeful decision to change them. To be a success you must have the habits of a successful person. Simply think about the cues, the routines and the rewards that are creating poor results for you - and then actively transform them! Good habits will completely change your life and your results. Good luck.
The actions, behaviors and feelings you engage in each day are actually not conscious decisions you are making - they are a result of your well formed habits. Now, each habit is only small on it's own but when you add them all together it ends up impacting everything you do. What you eat, whether you exercise, how you handle stress, how much you study, how much you work, how you relate to your family and friends, how you deal with different situations, and pretty much how your entire life operates from the time you wake up until the time you go to sleep, are all habits.
Habits occur when we stop making "decisions" and our behavior become automatic. This happens when the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine. We have hundreds of these routines that we rely on every day. For example, how to brush your teeth, how to get dressed, how to use your cell phone, how to drive a car, how to make a sandwich (how to do absolutely anything!) You don't have to re-learn how to do these things each day - you just do them automatically! But how do the routines emerge?
There are three elements required to create a routine that creates a habit. They are: cue (such as "I'm hungry"), routine (such as "I'll eat a cookie") and reward ("I'm full and content"). When anyone passes through this sequence enough times (cue, routine and reward) they will create a habit. This sequence is called the habit loop.
The big problem with habits is that your brain has no idea which habits are helpful to you and which are harmful to you. Your brain only understands the command of the habit loop - cue, routine, and reward. If there is a cue the brain will seek to employ the routine to achieve the reward. But the habit loop could actually be making you fat. The habit loop could be making you dumb. The habit loop could be embarrassing you. But again, your brain doesn't know the difference - it's just a sequence after all.
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!
But how does this work in practice? To change your habits you need to master the art of creating new behaviors. But what does that mean? Well, if we use the cookie example again it would look like this: there is a cue ("I'm so hungry!"), a routine ("I will eat an apple" (not a cookie)) and a reward ("I'm full and content"). As this example shows, the loop has changed but the cue and the reward have remained the same. The routine is the only thing that changes. Instead of eating a cookie to become full we have suggested eating an apple.
In this case we have used a simple example of eating an apple instead of a cookie. This is obviously simplifying the habit. But the process is the same. The loop is always the same. There is a cue, a routine and a reward. Focus on changing your routine and you will transform your habit. It truly is that simple - and that difficult!
You now have enough information to recognize your habits and then make a purposeful decision to change them. To be a success you must have the habits of a successful person. Simply think about the cues, the routines and the rewards that are creating poor results for you - and then actively transform them! Good habits will completely change your life and your results. Good luck.
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