You are amazing! You can learn to do all sorts of complex tasks. With practice and dedication, you can drive, play musical instruments, speak different languages, and create something no one else has ever seen. With your brain, you possess the ability to master almost anything. Yet, it is easy to form bad habits.
How Do Bad Habits Form?
Generally, bad habits form because they are easily and quickly reinforced. Conversely, good habits may take days, weeks, or longer before we begin to enjoy the benefits. Unfortunately, the human brain wants immediate gratification, which bad habits readily supply. Here are some examples:
- Junk food provides an immediate reward for how it tastes. All it takes is a moment to experience its benefits. The habit is reinforced every time you eat junk food, even though you know in the long run, you can gain weight.
- Procrastinating instead of doing an important task instantly spares effort and risk while freeing up time to do something more immediately rewarding.
- Staying up late to watch movies, play games, or engage in social media provides constant gratification even though you know you should get adequate sleep to tackle the day.
- Buying something can provide an instant yet momentary rush of positive feelings, especially if it is a good deal, even though your purchase may not be needed.
In short, good habits are hard to form since we are predisposed to repeat behaviors for immediate physical, social, and emotional outcomes. Therefore, you are likely to choose a behavior that lights up your brain with all those pleasure chemicals now instead of putting in more effort to feel those same chemicals in the future. Unfortunately, the benefits of exercise, a specific weight, and a desired lifestyle require more effort and time to achieve. Fortunately, it can be easier to make changes if you understand how habits work.
The Structure of a Habit
There is a lot of research on human behavior in great detail. However, understanding the basics of how habits work can lead to a better understanding of how to form or break one.
The Trigger
Something in your environment or your head starts the habit loop. The trigger could be a thought, person, place, or thing. Examples of triggers are seeing candy on the counter, getting up in the morning, or driving to work. Some triggers are easy to identify, while others are hard.
The Action
This is where you perform an action, good or bad, that reinforces a habit. At first, performing actions for a new habit takes mental fortitude and self-discipline. However, the more you perform the action when a trigger occurs, the easier it will become. Eventually, it becomes automatic.
The Reward
Your brain wants to experience a reward as soon as the action is done. That’s why bad habits are difficult to break because you are taking away a reward. Conversely, you may not experience any immediate reward when forming new habits, thereby making them hard to maintain.
Tips to Break Bad Habits
Bad habits are difficult to break. Most destructive and addictive habits have reward systems that require little to no effort. Smoking, doing drugs, or drinking are all easy habits to form because your brain gets that sweet rush of pleasure chemicals quickly. Once your brain experiences a reward, it will encourage you to keep doing it even though it could be bad for your overall health and well-being.
Thankfully, you can change bad habits with time, patience, and effort. Here are some tips to get you started in the right direction:
- Make it hard by changing the trigger. It’s easier to curb a bad habit by making it harder to do. For example, if you want to go to bed earlier, put your phone in another room.
- Change your environment. You will have difficulty breaking a habit if you change nothing about your environment. For example, if you want to eat less candy, then don’t make it easy to grab it from a bowl on the counter. Instead, replace it with a bowl of fruit or other healthy snacks within reach that you can grab easily.
- Patience is a virtue. Change takes time. Therefore, be kind to yourself and don’t listen to your inner critic. You can do it!
- Celebrate along the way! This helps reinforce those happy feelings your brain wants. So, tell your friends, throw a party, and journal about all the small wins.
These tips can help you overcome bad habits like staying up too late, snacking, and procrastinating. However, more serious bad habits, like drug or alcohol abuse, may require an expert. Don’t be afraid to seek professional help!
The Takeaway
Bad habits are easily formed because your brain gets an instant reward from actions requiring little or no effort. Therefore, breaking bad habits requires effort and self-discipline as you change your triggers and environment to make it harder to perform your habit.
Don’t worry. You can do it! Be patient with yourself, make baby steps towards your goal, and celebrate the small wins.
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Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
