Living Life by Design

Welcome to Monday!

To start the week off, I’d like to say a few words about habits – specifically about how bad habits can hold you hostage.

The first thing to know about habits is that they become stronger the more you repeat them.

Now, this can be a good thing with positive habits like eating healthily, setting weekly goals or running. However, negative habits such as complaining, procrastinating, smoking or criticizing others can be devastating to your well-being. And can also be incredibly difficult to break free from.

What’s the best way to release yourself from negative habits?

Well, you need to understand the habit loop. This is made up of three stages:

1. Cue – something that triggers your habit
2. Routine – the behavior that follows after you’ve triggered your habit
3. Reward – the positive reinforcement your brain identifies with the routine you’ve just taken

The key to breaking out of habit loops is to attack the starting block – the cue!

Let me give you an example.

Imagine that the smell of other people’s cigarette smoking triggers your desire to smoke. Every time you go to a smoking area, the cigarette smoke acts as a cue, sending your desire to smoke into almost uncontrollable territory.

The good news is that you’ve become aware of your habit cue. And the way for you to stop smoking is to stay away from smoking areas (at least for some time), and refuse to stand outside with friends and colleagues who want to puff and blow smoke in your face!

By avoiding the trigger of cigarette smoke, you’ll automatically stop yourself from moving to stage two and three – thus killing the habit before it has the chance to kill you!

make it a great week…