Getting rid of bad habits
Bad habits can be stubborn, holding us back from achieving our goals and leading to feelings of frustration and defeat. Whether it’s procrastination, overeating, or excessive screen time, these habits can seem impossible to break. James Clear, in his best-selling book Atomic Habits, provides a comprehensive guide to understanding how habits form and how we can intentionally break bad ones. He says that making small, incremental changes (atomic habits), is the key to both breaking bad habits and building new, positive ones.
Understanding the Habit Loop
According to Clear, all habits—good or bad—are the result of a simple four-step process: cue, craving, response, and reward.
To break a bad habit, first identify each component of the loop. For example, if you have a habit of mindlessly scrolling through social media, the cue might be boredom, the craving is the need for stimulation, the response is scrolling, and the reward is the temporary escape or distraction from your boredom. Understanding this loop is the first step to disrupting it.
The 4 Laws of Behavior Change – to break a habit
Make it Invisible (Cue): To break a bad habit, you need to remove the cues that trigger the behavior. If your bad habit is snacking on junk food, keeping unhealthy snacks out of sight or better yet, out of the house. By removing environmental triggers, you reduce the likelihood of falling into the habit loop.
Make it Unattractive (Craving): Bad habits are often appealing because of the immediate rewards they offer. To break the habit, reframe your perception of the behavior. Instead of focusing on the short-term relief or pleasure the habit provides, remind yourself of the long-term consequences. If you're trying to break the habit of procrastinating, focus on how it leads to stress, anxiety, and missed opportunities.
Make it Difficult (Response): The easier a habit is to perform, the more likely you are to stick with it. To break a bad habit, increase the friction between you and the action. If you find yourself binge-watching TV late at night, you can make it difficult by unplugging the TV or moving it out of your bedroom. The added effort can serve as a deterrent to engaging in the behavior.
What gets tracked, gets done
Do track your progress. Have an accountability buddy or just mark your attendance. Tracking is a crucial component of forming and sustaining new habits, acting as both a compass and a mirror for your progress. By recording your actions, whether through journals, apps, or simple checklists, you will we gain insights into your behavior patterns. Tracking provides you the motivation to go forward as you see your progress and celebrate your achievements.
Don’t miss twice
Keep up the momentum. You decide to go for a walk every morning and do it religiously for 8 months. And then the rains come and you decide continue after the rains. How hard will it be for you to get back? Instead, take advantage of dry spells and go for the walk on days it is not raining or at a different time during the day when it is not raining.
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