How to Actually Break a Bad Habit

43% of your day is strictly habitual behavior. This means nearly half of your life will be habits! It is hard to break a bad habit however, the process is actually very simple. There are three components that make up the habit loop: cue, routine, and reward. First, the cue is the trigger to do something. Next, the routine is what we are triggered to do physically, mentally, or emotionally. Lastly, the reward is the reinforcer that ensures the routine will follow the cue.

For example, in the morning you brush your teeth. The cue might simply be waking up or it might be finishing your cup of coffee or going into the bathroom. The routine is the act of brushing your teeth. Finally, the reward is having fresh, clean breath. Try to make a list of all your daily habits and put (+) next to it if it is a positive, healthy habit or a (-) if it is a negative, unhealthy habit.

Identifying bad habits

First, in order to break your bad habits, you have to be aware of them. So, take a look at your list and all the habits that have a (-) next to them. These are the habits you want to change. Some examples could be binge watching tv after work, drinking multiple cans of pop a day, or ordering take out every night. These three examples are the routine aspect of the habit loop.

Let’s work backward to what triggered those events? Binge watching tv might have a cue of getting home from work or finishing dinner after work. Drinking pop might have a trigger of feeling thirsty or bored. Lastly, ordering take out might be feeling hungry or getting home from work and not wanting to cook.

Now, what is the reward from these activities that ensure you will keep doing them every time the cue arises? For tv, you might be rewarded by entertainment or feeling relaxed. By drinking pop, you might get a spike of dopamine from the sugar or feel less thirsty. Take out, it tastes good and you’re satisfying your innate need to eat. Now write out full habit loops for each of your bad habits. Once you have a clear idea of what is going on, you can work towards changing them.

Breaking bad habits

The tricky part here is that the cues are likely to be constant. Hunger/thirst, time of day, after work, etc. Since you can’t change the cue you want to search for different routines that will give you a similar reward. Alternative relaxing routines after getting home from work could be going on a walk, reading a book, petting/playing with your dog or cat, meditating/yoga, etc. For a while your brain will want to go back to the old routine. This is because it is habitual. There is a strong neural pathway for this habit.

Imagine a forest with a clear trail. There are no bushes or branches throughout this trail because many people have walked on it, hindering anything to grow on the path. It would take a long time of no one walking on that path for nature to grow again and cover the path. That is similar to breaking a habit. It’s going to take a long time of not partaking in the bad habit for the brain to deem that neural pathway as an unimportant routine to remember.

Alternatively, imagine you’re in a forest and you want to create a new path. It would take a long time of crawling through branches as they snap along the path and footsteps to kill the grass beneath. After a while, a path will emerge and it will get more distinct each time you go on the path. That is similar to creating a new or alternative habit. It might take some trial and error to find new routines that work for you. Stay committed and be patient with yourself as you build your new habits. Click here to continue learning about how to build new habits.