Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Power of Habit

The Power of Habit


Do you want to exercise more, eat better, and just be totally awesome? If so, then you should start thinking about tweaking your habits.
Published in: Self Improvement



Transcript

  • 1. The Power of Habit How to eat right, exercise more, and just basically be totally amazing.
  • 2. Each one of us has the potential to be much greater than we are today.
  • 3. The easiest way to achieve this potential is to leverage the power of habits.
  • 4. Yes… HABITS!
  • 5. “All our life is but a mass of habits…” - William James
  • 6. Over the past 20 years, scientists have learned an extraordinary amount about habits…
  • 7. Not only are they important…
  • 8. (by one estimate, habits dictate 40% of what we do each day)
  • 9. …they’re also incredibly powerful.
  • 10. Researchers have found that once habits are formed, they are literally impossible to eradicate.
  • 11. This is a curse in the case of BAD HABITS!
  • 12. But a blessing when it come to good habits.
  • 13. Thus, the challenge is to harness the power of good habits to help you realize your potential.
  • 14. So, let’s talk about how to do this!
  • 15. First things first, what exactly is a habit?
  • 16. A habit consists of 4distinct components.
  • 17. The first is the “cue.”
  • 18. This is what tells a habit that it’s time to engage.
  • 19. For lack of a better example, stress is often a cue for smokers to light up...
  • 20. The second component is the “routine.”
  • 21. In the smoking example, this is the actual smoking of the cigarette.
  • 22. The third component is the “reward.”
  • 23. This is, after all, why your brain went through the hassle of imprinting a habit in the first place.
  • 24. And last but not least, is the “craving.”
  • 25. This is the glue that holds a habit together. It’s what connects a cue to a routine to a reward.
  • 26. When you put all of these together, you get a HABIT LOOP: Cue RoutineReward Craving
  • 27. And herein lies the secret to developing great habits.
  • 28. That is, if you want to lay the groundwork for a new habit (say, exercising), you must first identify a specific cue (your alarm clock) and a clear reward (drinks at the end of the week).
  • 29. Additionally, you must train yourself to think about (e.g., crave) the reward as soon as you encounter the cue.
  • 30. To be clear, I didn’t say this would be easy…
  • 31. However, the payoff can be extraordinary, as a successfully formed habit will stay with you for life!
  • 32. Adapted from the book “The Power of Habit,” by Charles Duhigg.
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