Habits are in charge of your life. You may not realize it. About 40 percent of the things you do every day are not things you think about. They are just habits that happen automatically. So if you want to change your life you need to know how habits work in your brain.
Lets break it down.
What Happens in Your Brain When a Habit Forms
Every time you do something your brain makes a path. It is like walking through a field. The time it is hard but the more you walk the same way the easier it gets.
Scientists call this neuroplasticity. Your brain changes because of the things you do a lot. That is why habits are easy to do after a while. Your brain has made them automatic to save energy.
The basal ganglia is the part of your brain that stores habits. When a habit starts the basal ganglia takes over. The part of your brain that thinks can relax. That is your brain working in a way.
The Habit Loop: The Framework You Need to Know
Some time researchers at MIT found out about the habit loop and it changed what we know about changing behavior.
Every habit has three steps:
1. Something triggers a behavior. It could be a time of day a place, a feeling or another person.
2. The behavior itself. This is the habit happening.
3. The payoff your brain gets which makes it want to do the habit
The important thing is: your brain does not care if the habit is good or bad. It just wants the payoff. That is why bad habits are hard to stop. The payoff is often away but the bad things that happen because of the habit show up later.
Why Most People Fail to Build New Habits
Most people try to build habits by using their willpower. That does not work.
Willpower is like a battery that runs out. It gets used up during the day, which's why you might eat junk food at night even if you ate healthy in the morning.
The key to building habits is not to be motivated. It is to make the right behavior easy. The wrong behavior hard. Make it easy to do habits. Make it hard to do habits.
For example if you want to exercise in the morning sleep in the clothes you exercise in. If you want to eat sugar do not keep sugar in the house. Changing your environment is better than using willpower.
The Role of Dopamine in Habit Formation
This is interesting. Your brain releases dopamine when it thinks it will get a payoff. Not when it gets one.
This is called the reward prediction circuit. It is very powerful. When your brain thinks it will get a payoff from a behavior it makes you want to do the behavior. That is what makes habits stick.
That is why habit stacking works well. You add a habit to a habit you already have and your brain gets excited about the new habit because it is connected to a habit it already likes. For example: "After I pour my coffee I will write in my journal for five minutes." The coffee makes your brain want to write in your journal.
How Long Does It Actually Take to Build a Habit?
You might have heard it takes 21 days to build a habit. That is not true.
A study found that it takes 66 days for a behavior to become automatic. It is different for each person and each habit. Simple habits happen faster. Hard habits take longer.
The thing to remember is: do not count the days. Just keep doing the habit. Missing one day is not a deal. Missing two days in a row is a problem. Try to keep doing the habit much as you can.
The One Thing That Makes or Breaks Every Habit
It is who you think you are.
Research shows that lasting habits come from changing who you think you are. Not just what you want to do. Of saying "I want to run a marathon " say "I am a runner." Of "I want to read more " say "I am someone who reads every day."
Everything you do is a choice about who you want to be. If you make enough of those choices you will become that person. When you become that person the habit is not hard. It is who you are.
Habits are not about being disciplined. They are, about knowing how your brain works and making habits that work with your brain. Start small keep doing the habit and let your brain do the rest.
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