A bit of a cheat this week as this is a copy of one of my blogs from ages ago BUT the information gets to the heart of the habits we face every day, so read on.....
Have you ever noticed how you always seem to need a cup of tea/coffee around about 10am? And have you noticed that somehow a biscuit just seems to creep in there while you’re not watching!
It got me thinking about the habits we have and why they affect us the way they do. A classic example was yesterday when I got up, made a cup of coffee, sat back down and if you asked me the process I’d just gone through, I couldn’t tell you. Another example…ever had one of those mornings when you drive to work but can’t remember any details of the journey?
Its amazing how many of our actions are driven through habit rather than conscious thought. When we start repeating a series of specific actions our basal ganglia in the brain kicks in and starts to identify it as a habit, then stores it with the many thousands of other habits we create over time.
It never ceases to amaze me how intelligent our bodies can be and also how lazy they can be at the same time. Our bodies will go to great lengths to conserve energy and the brain is no exception. It knows that if it can create an automatic habit it can free up brain capacity for other tasks, hence the reason why you can’t remember much of that drive to work.
Essentially habit is the cruise control of our brain function
Habits can be “good” (brushing your teeth each morning) or “bad” (that bar of chocolate every afternoon when you’re trying to lose weight) but the brain makes no distinction between either. To the brain its just a habit and once formed it becomes almost impossible to delete from the memory bank.
The good news is that whilst we can’t really delete it (the brain will look for any opportunity to re-engage an “old” habit) we can ignore it or try and re-programme it to work in our favour. First we need to know how a habit works and this is through a three stage process.
The Cue – This is a trigger which clicks the brain into automatic mode. It can be a time of day, a smell, a feeling, etc. This is how supermarkets get you to buy bread. You walk in and smell the freshly baked bread, net thing you know you’re at the counter loading it into your basket!
The Routine – A series of steps you go through according to the habit. Again this can be everything from a though process to a series of physical actions. i.e. putting the bread into your basket.
The Reward – The end goal whether it be a feeling, the completion of a task or the outcome of a thought process.
Lets look at a typical example most of us will go through.
The alarm clock goes off and you get up. You walk into the bathroom (The Cue), go to the toilet, have a shower/bath, brush your teeth and get dressed (The Routine), then you’re stood in front of the mirror ready for the day (The Reward).
Its a simple process but the same series of events apply to the habits that help us lose or gain weight, tone up or run that marathon, and its the reason why you keep having that chocolate hobnob with your morning coffee!
Changing any part of the sequence means you can either change the outcome of the habit or substitute a more helpful outcome. i.e. substituting the coffee for green tea to improve fat use.
So give it a go and let me know how you get on....
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