The Basics of Habit-Forming

By Will Kessler

At one point in our lives, we've all tried to form a new habit. For example, I’ve tried and tried to start meditating. But as I’ve learned many times, forming habits isn’t easy; it can take up to 66 days to fully form a habit. Even though that may seem like a long time, following some guidelines and taking it one step at a time can make the whole process much easier. Forming habits is something we all can do. 

First, we need to understand what’s really happening when you do something habitually. First, there is a cue: something that tells your mind, “Hey, do that thing.” Then you perform the action, whether it’s brushing your teeth or buckling your seatbelt. Once you complete the habitual action you are rewarded in some way. If you brushed your teeth, you are rewarded with knowing you did something healthy and the knowledge that your teeth are clean. If it’s buckling up, maybe this time you don’t hear that annoying beeping telling you to buckle up. Whatever it is, most habits follow this loop

We can manipulate this pattern to work for us and help us build habits (Gardner et al., 2012). When trying to build a new habit, start by thinking about what could cue that habit. If you want to brush your teeth more regularly, maybe your cue could be finishing breakfast. If you want to exercise more, maybe your cue could be an alarm on your phone. Once you know your desired habit’s cue, you should think about the final part of the “habit loop,” the reward. Sometimes the habit itself is enough of a reward (exercising for example), but oftentimes it’s not. Forming habits is hard, so be sure to build in rewards to incentivize your lizard brain. Give yourself a yummy snack after a run or spend the evening watching tv if you’ve done your habit all week. You could even reward yourself while you are performing your habit. Maybe listen to a fun podcast while you run or eat your favorite fruit when you clean your room. For me, I decided to reward myself with 15 minutes of video games after meditating. This helps keep me excited and looking forward to the whole process, even if the fun part is only at the end.

There are even more things you can do to help your habit grow. While researching this topic, I found a few good “tips ‘n’ tricks” to employ when building habits. 

First off, start small. Failure can be discouraging, and it can make you not want to continue. However, successfully performing a habit is encouraging and makes you want to continue doing it. My end goal was to meditate for 20 minutes a day, but I started with a more realistic starting point of 5 minutes, which was easier to get accustomed to.

  1. Another helpful tip is to shape your environment for success. In my case, this meant creating a dedicated area to practice meditation where it was easy for me to sit down and focus. For many habits, this means thinking ahead and preparing either time or space for your habit. At the very least, removing distractions and allowing yourself to focus on the task at hand is a powerful way to set yourself up for success.

  2. Lastly, think about how you can build on build on pre-existing habits. For example, if you wanted to start taking a daily multivitamin, you could make sure to take it immediately after breakfast. Instead of having to create a brand-new cue in your mind, you can piggyback on what is already established. I decided to tack meditation on to brushing my teeth in the morning (a habit I’ve had for years), which made it easy to remember to do. We perform dozens of habits with dozens of cues every day, and it's not always necessary to create one from scratch.

After I started following all these habit-building guidelines and tips, I started finding meditation easier and easier. It began to feel more natural and more like a part of my everyday routine. Creating habits can be intimidating to start, but if done wisely, anyone can form a habit. Remember, start small, shape your environment and use pre-existing cues to encourage your desired behavior, and always feel free to give yourself a reward for your efforts. 


References

Davies, S. T. (2008, Jul 8) How to Build a New Habit — And Make it Stick. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-to-build-a-new-habit-and-make-it-stick/

Duhigg, C. (2018, Jul 8) The Golden Rule of Habit Change. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-golden-rule-of-habit-change/ 

Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664–666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466 

McQuaid, M. (2019, Nov 28) 3 Simple Hacks for Building Healthy Habits. From Functioning to Flourishing. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/functioning-flourishing/201911/3-simple-hacks-building-healthy-habits

Parker-pope, T. (2020, February 18). How to Build Healthy Habits. The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/well/mind/how-to-build-healthy-habits.html

LearningKarla Lassonde