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Choosing to Change

February 23, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 1 Comment

The Power Of Habit
The Power Of Habit (Photo credit: Earthworm)

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

Filed Under: Beliefs, Choice, Habit, Living

The Consistency Hobgoblin

January 13, 2013 by Joycelyn Campbell 2 Comments

Eat Your Vegetables, They're Good For You!
Eat Your Vegetables, They’re Good For You! (Photo credit: the bridge)

Consistency is a concept that has developed a bad rap, at least in some neighborhoods. I’m not sure why this is but I suspect it’s because consistent has become another thing we should be, at least in regard to developing those habits that are good for us. Right off the bat, labeling a habit as being good for us automatically makes it a tough sell. If it was something we were going to enjoy, we wouldn’t have to persuade ourselves to do it on a regular basis, would we?

For some, consistent = boring and repetitious. It connotes a lack of spontaneity and freedom and engenders an instantaneous desire to rebel. It evokes, for those folks, the mental image of swallowing an evil-tasting pill. Ugh.

For others, consistency is nearly as elusive to achieve as locating the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It seems like a really good idea. At least they’ve heard that it is. Not being consistent at maintaining good for them habits makes some of these people feel bad about themselves and what they perceive of as their lack of will power.

For yet others, consistency is but a speck in the rear view mirror as they speed past it all the way to rigidity. Good ideas, good for them habits, personal goals or intentions—all are transformed into self-imposed rules that must—and will—be adhered to no matter what.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. –Aldous Huxley

Maybe we ought to look a little deeper into those things we think we should be more consistent about. When you hear yourself say I know I should be [fill in the blank], stop and ask yourself why you think you should be doing—or not doing—whatever it is. Because it’s good for you isn’t a good enough answer.

If you can’t come up with a better one, maybe you’re putting the cart before the horse. Maybe you’re trying to make some positive changes without having clearly defined what you are aiming for in the long run. What do you want to get out of being more consistent about [fill in the blank] and why do you want that? What is the overall positive outcome you’re trying to achieve?

If you’re aiming for something you really want, and you identify the steps it will take to get there, it’s a lot easier to be consistent about taking them. I don’t mean to imply it’s that simple or easy because it isn’t. But if you have gotten to this point and you know the what and the why of the habit you want to change or begin or improve, there’s a process, outlined by Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit, that can help you do it.

Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense. –-Charles Duhigg

Since there’s an element in the formation and continuation of habits that is outside of our conscious awareness, we may as well stop beating ourselves up over our track records in regard to consistency. Much more useful to learn how to work with what scientists call “the habit loop.” Duhigg’s book is a great place to start.

~ ~ ~

Thank you, Beverly, Jean, and Linda. 🙂

Filed Under: Finding What You Want, Habit Tagged With: Aldous Huxley, Bad Habits, Charles Duhigg, Consistency, Good Habits, Habits, Meaning, Power of Habit

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