This is another idea I got from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg: a great way of quitting bad habits is to not get into them in the first place. Here's an example:
Recently, I've been stopping by a 7-11 on my way home from work and picking up a snack - such as oreos. This happens fairly regularly - at around 6:30 on weekdays, I'll pick up my oreos and then go on my way home.
After about two weeks of doing this, I noticed that at around 6:30 every weekday, I develop a terrible craving for oreos, and feel a tremendous urge to go into that 7-11 and pick them up. Skipping my 7-11 visit has started to require incredible amounts of willpower.
So what happened? Using Duhigg's Habit Loop model, I realized that I had classically conditioned myself to expect oreos at 6:30 on weekdays. This means that my body had been trained to expect them, and so the anticipation manifested as the craving that was so difficult to resist.
Using the Habit Loop model, my cue is the time of day and the sight of 7-11. The behaviour is buying and eating oreos, and the reward is the sugar rush I get from it. After an extended period reinforcing this loop for my brain, seeing the cue was enough for my brain to start anticipating the reward, resulting in a manufactured craving that wouldn't go away until I partook in the behaviour that resulted in the reward.
Now how to fix this - giving up my oreos completely is not something I'm willing to do. I love oreos and am unashamed of my indulgence. The problem is that I want to eat oreos when I actually feel like eating them, and not because my body is manufacturing a craving just because it happens to be expecting them.
The solution, as I've gleaned from Duhigg, is to keep my oreo supply unpredictable. By preventing the association between any single cue and my oreos, I can keep my brain from automating away the behaviour by forming a habit. This way, every time I buy oreos, it will be conscious decision that I will likely have thought through, and not automatic behaviour.
It's difficult to do this when you have a regular job with regular hours, but I could get around this, for example, by varying up the source of my oreos. I could get them from 7-11 one day, and then get them from Jewel or Target the next time. I could also vary up the time - maybe I could get them with lunch one time, and the on the way home the next time. Finally, I could also vary up the frequency - I could eat oreos for two successive days, and then skip three days, and then eat the following day.
So remember: our brains are automation machines. Don't let them automate bad habits. Bad habits are easy to build and hard to get rid of. You don't need to completely stop a behaviour in order to prevent the bad habit from forming - you can do it by varying up the cue and hence prevent the cue-reward association from forming. After all, life is short, and we all deserve the occasional oreo fix. :)
Here's the affiliate link to the The Power of Habit if you'd like to support my blog. And here's the non-affiliate link if you're not into that. :)
Recently, I've been stopping by a 7-11 on my way home from work and picking up a snack - such as oreos. This happens fairly regularly - at around 6:30 on weekdays, I'll pick up my oreos and then go on my way home.
After about two weeks of doing this, I noticed that at around 6:30 every weekday, I develop a terrible craving for oreos, and feel a tremendous urge to go into that 7-11 and pick them up. Skipping my 7-11 visit has started to require incredible amounts of willpower.
So what happened? Using Duhigg's Habit Loop model, I realized that I had classically conditioned myself to expect oreos at 6:30 on weekdays. This means that my body had been trained to expect them, and so the anticipation manifested as the craving that was so difficult to resist.
Using the Habit Loop model, my cue is the time of day and the sight of 7-11. The behaviour is buying and eating oreos, and the reward is the sugar rush I get from it. After an extended period reinforcing this loop for my brain, seeing the cue was enough for my brain to start anticipating the reward, resulting in a manufactured craving that wouldn't go away until I partook in the behaviour that resulted in the reward.
Now how to fix this - giving up my oreos completely is not something I'm willing to do. I love oreos and am unashamed of my indulgence. The problem is that I want to eat oreos when I actually feel like eating them, and not because my body is manufacturing a craving just because it happens to be expecting them.
The solution, as I've gleaned from Duhigg, is to keep my oreo supply unpredictable. By preventing the association between any single cue and my oreos, I can keep my brain from automating away the behaviour by forming a habit. This way, every time I buy oreos, it will be conscious decision that I will likely have thought through, and not automatic behaviour.
It's difficult to do this when you have a regular job with regular hours, but I could get around this, for example, by varying up the source of my oreos. I could get them from 7-11 one day, and then get them from Jewel or Target the next time. I could also vary up the time - maybe I could get them with lunch one time, and the on the way home the next time. Finally, I could also vary up the frequency - I could eat oreos for two successive days, and then skip three days, and then eat the following day.
So remember: our brains are automation machines. Don't let them automate bad habits. Bad habits are easy to build and hard to get rid of. You don't need to completely stop a behaviour in order to prevent the bad habit from forming - you can do it by varying up the cue and hence prevent the cue-reward association from forming. After all, life is short, and we all deserve the occasional oreo fix. :)
Here's the affiliate link to the The Power of Habit if you'd like to support my blog. And here's the non-affiliate link if you're not into that. :)
 | ||
| The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg |
0 comments:
Post a Comment