A question that frequently comes up in coaching sessions is how to build new habits. For example, related to a healthier lifestyle, more discipline at work, new relationship dynamics.
My own challenge these days is not to be so glued to my mobile phone all the time. It’s an unhealthy habit formed by deliberately designed cues—notifications, feeds, alerts and more.
According to Charles Duhigg, habits are the automatic patterns that allow our brains to conserve energy, by outsourcing behaviour to routine. In other words, habits are efficient. Without them, even simple tasks would be mentally exhausting.
The challenge is that habits continue to operate even when they no longer serve you. (To find out exactly why, I can recommend Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit). Simplified: Habits start with a trigger, and end with a reward.
Suffice it to say that simply stopping something that has become a habit is next to impossible, but replacing a habit with another habit, that can realistically be done. The most effective way to change a habit is to keep the cue and the reward the same, while changing the routine in between.
Typically, this requires some introspection. Observing yourself, and the habit that you’ve built. Asking: what usually precedes it? And: what do I actually gain in the moment?
I’m asking myself that every time I pick up my phone, only to discover nothing that I really needed to know. What bad habits are you trying to shake, and what are you replacing them with?
