Health and Psychology

It's a new year and many people make resolutions to change habits.  So let me explain how to change a habit. There are three steps.  

1.  Identify all the things that make you do the thing you want to change.  These are known as cues.

2.  Identify a reward for changing the behavior.  Something small that you can do every time you do the new behavior.

3.  Change the cues and do them consistently for a few weeks, (somewhere between 4 and 12 weeks usually works) ensuring you get a small reward after you complete the changed behavior, every single time.  Then gradually stop the reward.  (That's known as fading.)

So common resolutions are to stop smoking, lose weight, drink alcohol less, save money, exercise more.  All these things are designed to be habits.  A habit is something you can do without a lot of thought.  It's mindless.  You see some cue, like putting your key in the ignition, and then you come to when you reach your destination, and you have no real memory of the drive itself.  It's autopilot.  We do a lot of things on autopilot.  So to change a habit you have to take things off autopilot.  Change the key ring, focus on the drive, turn off the radio, all the cues that were in place change them.  Then create a reward for your focus. Something you like.  A piece of chocolate, pay yourself a dollar, notice the sunrise, something you can do that's enjoyable, that you can do every time you are off autopilot.  After a few weeks you will no longer need to do the rewards, because the habit will be automatic.

If you need help changing behaviors feel free to contact us.  We're starting new groups focusing on habit change.