THE POWER OF HABIT: BREAKING BAD ONES

The "habit loop" described by Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit holds the key to breaking free from bad habits.

Do you find yourself regularly repeating some routine behavior even though you recognize it as entirely undesirable - because it is unhealthy, dangerous, embarrassing, wasteful or expensive? 

The key to breaking free, according to Duhigg and behavioral scientists, lies not so much in willpower as in understanding two things:

1) What cue triggers the routine?

And

2) What reward does the routine deliver?

Both require some degree of introspection and discernment, but number 1 might be a bit easier to nail down than number 2.

Examples of cues would include a mid-morning lull in one's workload that triggers a desire for a snack. Or a brief suggestive image that appears on a website's sidebar that triggers a desire to indulge in a few minutes of pornography. 

The reward might be tougher to get a grip on. It isn't necessarily obvious. The mid-morning snack may be more about being bored than being hungry. The pornography routine may be more directly related to escaping reality, boosting self-esteem, or self-soothing than sexual desire per se. 

Regardless, once the cue and the reward are identified, a little creativity is required: find a positive routine that can deliver the same reward and substitute it for the bad routine the next time that cue fires. 

So, for example, the next time that mid-morning lull hits, let it remind you that you are simply a bit bored. And instead of reaching for a snack, go for a quick walk to break the monotony. As you walk, notice and appreciate what is really going on around you. 

In effect, Duhigg is claiming a bad habit is not ever truly broken; instead, it must be supplanted by a good habit.