At the start of a new year or throughout the year, we randomly get the urge to turn our lives around. From setting new goals to kicking bad habits to the curb, everyone goes through that lightbulb moment where it seems like changing one aspect of yourself or habits will steer you to the course of being the best version of yourself, and they’re not wrong. At least, this is the entire premise of the Bestseller Atomic Habits.
While you might get the ‘Eureka’ moment to change the bad habits you’re currently being plagued by, like smoking, procrastinating or binge drinking, there’s something you should know about how habits work as it will help you know what to expect when you decide to change them.
Let’s begin
How Habits Work
You might have heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit, but modern psychologists have discovered it’s a bit more complicated (and interesting!) than that.
A study by Phillippa Lally and her team at University College London found that, on average, our brains take about 66 days to turn a new behavior into a “no-brainer” or habitual activity. But here’s where it gets fun: this timeframe can swing dramatically from as quick as 18 days to as leisurely as 254 days, depending on what you’re trying to turn into a habit and, well, who you are.
On the other hand, breaking a bad habit, like smoking, is more complicated than forging one as it has a less predictable timeline. This is because bad habits are often our brain’s go-to shortcuts for certain needs or responses. However, while we might not be able to ascertain the duration it takes to completely curb a bad habit, we can suggest a few strategies that’ll hasten the process.
How To Change Bad Habits
- Spot the Triggers
Every habit kicks off with something known as a cue, and it can be pretty much anything. Maybe it’s stress nudging you towards indulging in that chocolate or the beep of your alarm nudging you back to sleep. Figuring out these triggers is a crucial step in understanding what gets your habits rolling.
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Disrupt Them
With these cues in view, you can disrupt the bad habits by setting up systems that’ll derail them. For instance, if you feel like binge-watching a show, you can place restrictions on your Wi-Fi or data plan. This way, even if you try to binge-watch a show, you won’t be able to. Calling your phone company and asking them to reset your Wi-Fi will surely disrupt the habit of binge-watching.
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Replace
Scientific research has shown that replacing a bad habit with a good or not-so-detrimental one is more effective in ridding yourself of that habit than stopping the habit alone. This same premise is often applied to toddler parenting when parents replace one item in their child’s grip with another so they don’t cry their eyes out. Essentially, for a habit like smoking, very few people can go cold turkey and not relapse. This is why replacing tobacco cigarettes with salt nic or vape juice options would create a beneficial interference that helps steer your brain away from autopilot mode.
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Keep New Habits Simple
Changing bad habits is typically hard because the behavior has become a default and automatic one as the habits have taken over the autopilot part of the brain. So, for your brain to get adapted to the new and better, you will need to keep them simple. This way, it becomes easier for them to stick.
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Consistency
Your bad habits will not change in a day. You will have to persist in your efforts to curb them. It might feel like a slog at first—like waking up early for a run—but with each time you persist, it becomes just another part of your routine.
Conclusion
Wrapping this up, let’s remember: flipping bad habits into good ones is a bit like a personal adventure. It’s about learning, stumbling a bit, and then getting right back up with more resilience. The journey from figuring out what triggers those sneaky habits to replacing them with better ones might take a little while, but the rewards are forever. Each tiny step you take, every little win, is a high five to yourself on the way to becoming your most awesome version. So, keep it simple, shake things up when you need to, and stick with it. Your future self will thank you for the laughs and the lessons learned on the way to change those bad habits.