How To Create Or Break A Habit

This blog is made to give you the information you need to make or break a habit.

Using this I’ve successfully been able to make going to the gym a habit and break bad eating habits

Therefore by the end of this blog, you will know how to create a good habit you desire or break a bad habit you currently have.

At the epicentre of every habit is a neurological loop. This neurological loop consists of three parts which are:

Cue - routine - reward

Cue is the thing that triggers the loop. These can be hard to identify when breaking a habit. So it’s best to deal with the other two first when trying to break a habit. When creating a habit this is the thing which we are going to use to trigger the habit we want to create.
Routine is the most obvious part, it’s the behaviour you want to develop, change or stop/prevent.
Rewards. Rewards satisfy cravings, and cravings can drive our behaviour. You have to experiment with rewards to see what satisfies the urge.

For example, you're at work and you start to feel bored. Usually, when you get this feeling, you decide to eat junk food for a bit before deciding to continue with your work, however, you have realised this habit is harming your health in a way you do not like.

In this situation, the cue is feeling bored, the routine is eating junk food and the reward is satisfying the boredom.

To alter this habit, go for a walk or spend a couple minutes reading a book, blog etc. If that doesn't work, next time try something else and keep trying until you find what works for you.

Here it was rather straight forward to identify the cue however so many of us have habits but have no clue what the cue is, because of this you have to experiment with different routines that produce the same reward, this allows you to identify the true cue triggering you to enact the routine that provides you with the reward. If whatever you tweaked doesn't satisfy the urge/cue then keep changing the routine until you find one that does.

NOW, here is how I was able to make exercise a habit.

I turned going to the gym into a habit by these following steps.

Wake up wanting to feel good & want to have a productive day.
Get out of bed, get ready, go to the gym.
Feel good knowing I'm working towards my body goals, makes me want to go again.

This feeling in step number 3 is the key to creating the habit because you will begin to crave that feeling and make you want to go gym again.

There is one thing that I haven't said yet that is extremely important in making these habits last and that is REPETITION. As stated at the very beginning of this blog, at the centre of these habits is a neurological loop, so every time we repeat this loop, it becomes stronger and stronger. This is why it is so hard for us to break our bad habits because we have reaffirmed them so much that it will take a lot of time to create a new preferred habit which is stronger.

After understanding that it needs repetition it should be easy to understand you need patience. patience with yourself to know that even if you mess up and repeat the bad habit you can still create a good habit to replace it. It just takes a lot of time hence why patience with yourself to not breakdown with a slip up is so important.

*Please note that as true as this method is, if you are trying to break an addiction then, by all means, use this method but only alongside seeking trained professional help from a doctor or therapist etc.