Choosing to Change

Much of our behavior is habitual. It’s the nature of things.

Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort. Left to its own devices, the brain will try to make almost any routine into a habit, because habits allow our minds to ramp down more often. This effort-saving instinct is a huge advantage. An efficient brain requires less room, which makes for a smaller head, which makes childbirth easier and therefore causes fewer infant and mother deaths. An efficient brain also allows us to stop thinking constantly about basic behaviors, such as walking and choosing what to eat, so we can devote mental energy to inventing spears, irrigation systems, and eventually, airplanes and video games. –Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit

What happens is that once a habit forms and behavior becomes automatic, we start thinking less.

The brain turns routines into habits without our having much say so in the process. We each have habits we didn’t intend to create. We didn’t freely choose to create them. So if we didn’t freely choose to create a habit, we can’t simply choose to uncreate it or modify it. We will most certainly fail, and then either conclude we have no will power or create a story about it. Eventually we may start to think there’s something wrong with us.

It’s definitely possible to change an existing habit or create a new habit, but will power isn’t the key. The way to deal with habits is to understand the way the brain works to create and maintain habits and to become familiar with the three-step process of the habit loop:

• Cue
• Routine
• Reward

Imagine trying to prepare a casserole without understanding the relationship between ingredients, oven temperature, and cooking time. How far would will power take you in getting it right?

I wrote about habits in Nine Paths last year, if you’re interested in a little (or a lot) more:

Hat Railings and Other Habits

Your Basal Ganglia and You

Cultivating a Craving

You’ve Got to Believe