The Power of Habit: Transforming Your Life One Routine at a Time

Introduction

Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision-making, but they're not. They're habits. And though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend, and how often we exercise define our enormous impact on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness.

In this deep dive, we'll explore the neurological patterns that govern our lives and how we can harness them to create lasting change.

The Habit Loop: Cue, Routine, Reward

At the core of every habit is a simple neurological loop that consists of three parts: a cue, a routine, and a reward.

• The Cue: A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use.
• The Routine: Which can be physical or mental or emotional.
• The Reward: Which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

Understanding this loop is the key to unlocking the power of habit. By identifying the cues and rewards, you can change the routine.

Keystone Habits: The Ripple Effect

Some habits matter more than others. These are "keystone habits," and they have the power to start a chain reaction, changing other habits as they move through an organization or a life.

Exercise is a classic keystone habit. When people start exercising habitually, even as infrequently as once a week, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives, often unknowingly. Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. Exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change.

The Science of Willpower

Willpower isn't just a skill. It's a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there's less power left over for other things.

This is why it's so hard to stick to a diet or a new workout regimen in the evening if you've had a stressful day at work. You've used up your willpower muscle. But the good news is that, like a muscle, willpower can be strengthened with practice.

The Golden Rule of Habit Change

You can't extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it. To change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.

That's the rule: If you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same.

Conclusion

Transforming a habit isn't necessarily easy or quick. It isn't always simple. But it is possible. And now that we understand how habits work - the loop of cue, routine, and reward - we have the power to change them.

Start small. Identify one habit you want to change. Find the cue, identify the reward, and experiment with different routines. You have the power to reshape your life, one habit at a time.