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Lots of people ask me what's the deal with habits what does the science say
In just a few minutes you'll know exactly what you need to do to change
any habit or build any new behavior habits determine your success
or failure and all businesses and organizations
live or die on the collective habits of their workforce. Put simply
you need to know this. So what a habit
A habit is an automatic behavior that we engage in
without even thinking. The part of our brain that stores habits
is called the basal ganglia and it's the old brain where our
instincts and feelings work from. The new brain is known as the frontal cortex
and that's where self-discipline and willpower originate from.
The key is to learn how to use the new brain
to override our old brains habitual urges. How?
Well there's been some great work in the area of habit change quite recently
the Power of habit by Charles Duhigg is a great book
about changing habits. Another super book on the topic
is called making habits breaking habits by Jeremy Dean
But what are the main approaches suggested by the best minds out there
Well there is mindfulness which suggests being more aware of the present on your
part
so you can take more control which is pretty cool. When you simply notice your
urges and feelings
you can allow them to pass and make an intelligent decision
based upon what's good for you in the moment. CBT or cognitive behavioral
therapy
suggests ways have associating positive feelings to a new behavior
You condition yourself by rewarding good behavior
and stopping yourself engaging in old habits through negative reinforcement
Hypnosis allows you to make suggestions the subconscious mind
in order to think in new ways about the habit and NLP or
neuro-linguistic programming teaches you to change the images you make
in your mind so that you can eliminate the craving since
thinking can be seen as being made above that images we make and
how we talk to ourselves. When you become aware of this you can do something about
it
You can reprogram how you think about the habit craving and therefore
diminish the feelings you have about it
Well they're all cool approaches but there's really
only three things that you need to know about habit formation and change
in order to make it work. One value the change
You won't change anything unless you've a strong enough reason to
Imagine vividly how great it will be when you engage in the new habit
Really imagine the kind of person you want to be and all the advantages
of the new habit and the downside to the old habit. The urgency
of change must be there. Two
strategize is the second part and is the technical side of things
Your habits are triggered and produce rewards
all habits have a trigger this is
automatically conditioned to produce a behavior as a result
what can you do to change this? Change the environment
so that you're less likely to be impacted by the trigger. Cigarettes after
sex
take the smokes away and you won't be able to smoke 'em. Coffee for breakfast
try a banana instead. Smack after meeting your dealer
kill the smack dealer. One example of this
is a lady I worked with who had the habit eating biscuits which she watched TV
So I said it was okay she ate the biscuits, she just had to do it my way
My way was to have a choice. She wanted biscuits,
she could have them but she was to store them in a high cupboard
and needed to take out plates and knifes and a fork
and eat them in the kitchen or she could just grab a piece of fruit
go straight back to TV what's really crucial
is not just changing the environment but the plan for the trigger and make sure
you've a new behavior
ready to go when it happens and that it produces new feeling
that is better than the old feeling rebuild the doc
and make sure that when you perform the new habit you reward yourself with
feelings such as self-pride or
whatever else you can think of. Decide
how you're going to deal with the various challenges you're going to face
as you change and built new habits. My partner brings me to a restaurant with
the cheesecake from heaven
then I'll order extra vegetables earlier on and fill myself ok
3 identify with it
Last you need to start becoming the kind of person who engages in the new habits
so you become nonsmoker, you become
a healthy n fit person the kind of person who takes care
of what they put into their body. See yourself as the kind of person who does it
and it will streamline and become a natural part of your lifestyle
So in summary value it strategize it
and identify with it. For more information on some cool psychological
stop
check out www.owenfitzpatrick.com thanks for watching