This week’s piece is all about one of my favorite topics – Habits and habit loops. I recently discovered a new element that has been added into the equation when building, braking or changing habits.
Here’s a short review of these habit loops that are in the heart of habitual behavior that we all share!
When you understand and master them, it becomes increasingly easier to start effecting your life positively. As you might have heard:
“We are what we repeatedly do”
Will Durant
The four elements of the habit loops.
#1 Cue/ Trigger
All habits need a trigger. Most often this is an unconscious cue that comes from an environment.
Example: You walk into a supermarket and you smell (Cue) the fresh bread.
Our physical sensory fields especially Smell (olfactory), Sound (auditory) and Taste (Gustatory) are the ones that trigger human behavior the most. Obviously Touch (kinesthetic) and Visual senses are very much in the game too, though I feel that the first three matter the most.
If you know something about marketing and sales, you very quickly start to understand the importance of knowing what makes humans tick! When you can tap into our sensory fields via environmental triggers you are already half way there.
The point being that most of the behavior we engage in the world has a Cue or a trigger that ignites that habit. When we acknowledge that it is outside of ourselves and we are having a reaction to this trigger, we start to understand the whole cycle a lot better!
Keep-on reading and you will understand why I’m stressing this point so much!
#2 Desire
This part of the loop is the “new comer”. Or let’s put it this way, it’s always been there I was just not consciously aware of it. It happens quickly (in milliseconds) and outside of our own conscious awareness.
Once something triggers the loop, like the smell of the fresh bread, the next one is the Desire to feel emotionally fulfilled or get an outcome! If this Emotional part is negative or the outcome missing, the loop will stop on its tracks!
Think about a smell of burnt bread. It’s highly undesirable as we are walking to another direction in that supermarket!
Desire for a positively emotional outcome acts as a fuel that pushes us to continue the loop further!
#3 Reaction Vs. Response
This is where the rubber meets the road. The 3rd part being the actual habit we do.
There are two options for this, though 99% of the time it is a Reaction. An unconscious behavior that is triggered by a sensation or an environmental cue fueled by desire.
Or it can be a Conscious Response!
The second 1% option is what I want to concentrate on. Because once we become aware of this part and have an ability to respond instead of react, we are starting to play our own game! Suddenly you are sitting on the driver’s seat of life, having a control of what we do and how we engage in our daily behaviors!
This is where we change from being reactive to life to consciously responding from a wider awareness!
#4 Reward
The cherry on the top, icing on the cake or the tip of the iceberg. This is the most enjoyable part of the loop!
It’s the reason why want to do what we do. The warm fuzzy feeling in the belly after eating that piece of bread. The euphoric hormonal sensations in our body after the run when all the feel-good hormones are flooding our internal systems.
Again, if the reward is not there, we probably wouldn’t engage in the first place. Or either we would do the habit for a few times and then drop out.
We send energy outwards and receive energy in the back end of the loop, It’s the basics of my “loop science”! =)
It is different than the normal expectations we have to get something in return for what we do. We can still have the mindset of non-attachment to the outcome, as we are always getting something in return, regardless of the intention!
And when it comes to building long lasting habits, the reward is the energy we get back in return for the action we did!
—
OK, so now I know all this, how can I benefit from this information?
Building New habits
Building new habits takes time, the latest research by UCL (University College of London) says it takes on average of 66 days to build new habits!
When we understand all the different elements that are involved, it becomes A LOT easier to develop new habits! Try it out, personally I have nailed my daily meditation habit, for the past 6 months I have only missed one day! =)
The best way to set you up for success is to make the trigger as easy as possible. This will also lessen the willpower needed to fire the feedback loop!
Make the cue a super simple one, a small action that requires minimal amount of will power! This will be a game changer when building new habits!
Updating current habits
Upgrading or updating our current behavior is interesting. The reason why many people do not like habits is because we associate them with boredom in the long run! So, the key element becomes that we need to update and upgrade our habits periodically!
The easiest way to do this: Keep the loop untouched, except the actual behavior!
Have the Trigger, Desire and the Reward the same which makes it a lot easier to update the behavior part.
You can only change one element at the time of the current habit loops!
In our Bread model, you are walking to the same supermarket and you get a smell (still the same cue). This time it is a fresh organic gluten free bread that then fires the same loop!
Now we have upgraded our habit of eating bread to a healthier upgraded version, still keeping all the other elements of the loop intact!
Braking bad habits
Saving the best for last, I have spent a hefty amount of time on this idea as it is what most people need help with! To my knowledge and understanding, the very best way to brake a habit is to remove the trigger!
Once the Cue is out, the loop won’t fire!!
What if it was, and it can be as simple as that (not easy though)!
You can also make the environment work against the habit by making the trigger a huge task that takes a lot of will power! Reversed from building new habits.
Remove the reward, which will eventually make the habit boring and you will drop it naturally.
7 Key points to remember!
- To have all the four elements, Trigger, Desire, Response and Reward in the Habit loop.
- Make the environment work for you by setting obvious and easy triggers.
- Making the trigger as small as possible to lessen the need for will power when building habits.
- Set a positive Desire.
- We can only change one element at the time of the current habit loops.
- The easiest way to brake the old habits is to remove the trigger(s)!
- Remove the reward.
If you are interested to dive deeper into this topic, I highly recommend picking up this new book by James Clear which is a more complete package.
Let me know how your thoughts, feelings and actions take shape based on these ideas!
