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Summary
Mastering Good Habits and Bad Habits: 4 Cool Tactics
As I 've mentioned before, self-improvement really comes down to daily habits and the compounding effects of them.
But how do we make sure we do our good habits and avoid the bad?
I 'm sure you 've heard this a million times before, but according to the book, The Power of Habit, habits follow the same pattern:
Trigger
Action
Reward
While this isn 't new news, here are some great tactics that plan around this that can really help you out!
Good Habits
It 's a lot easier to create good habits than to get rid of the bad ones, so let 's start with that.
Tactic #1: The Best Trigger
The best triggers are the ones that hunt you down no matter what. While your friend
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I sounds odd but it works. I promise!
Each time you do a good habit, reward yourself with an amount you feel that is right.
Habits - Reward yourself with fake money
And at the end of the day you get to see how much "money" you made!
But, here is one thing to keep in mind with this strategy: the trigger is somewhat lacking.
So I would suggest you have your list be something physical you keep around to remind you (a notebook, sticky notes, etc.), instead of keeping it on a computer.
Bad Habits
Bad habits are hard. The elephant in the brain takes over and the rider seems pretty much powerless. You become the cookie monster. We 've all been there.
Tactic #3: Action Swap
You probably know about this one.
You have your trigger, but you do a different action/reward.
You go for a walk and get hot cocoa water, instead of the caffeine sugar-bomb you get at Starbucks.
It does work, so do use it, but I never really liked this tactic.
First, it can take you a while to find the substitute your brain will accept.
Despite being a vegan, I 'm very addicted to nachos (cheese is very bad for you). The only food that can curve the craving, which took me forever to figure out, is a big thing of smashed
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Second, it doesn 't really address the underlying issue.
And that brings us to our last tactic.
Tactic #4: Power of the Social
I won 't even say anything, just watch this video:
You want to break your bad habits? You need people.
I 've talked about it again and again: happiness is external.
And what is the best way to start making connections?
Well it isn 't cold approaching some random guy or girl at a bar.
You need to join a group with the right culture.
This can be a new job, going back to school, or joining an organization (for all you shy introverts, please read that article).
If you do that, you 'll notice you 'll stop doing your bad habits.
You 'll stop watching porn and eating junk food, but you 'll also start feeling better. You 'll finally feel like a human being.
One Last Thing
So a lot of you are worried about habits because you see it as the key to becoming happy.
You 'll get a ton of money and that six pack.
But the research keeps showing us that happiness almost always goes before success.
So stop chasing after sex and money and put people first.
Find that group where you belong so you can master your habits and become
Habit 3 is Put First Things First. Personally, I struggled with putting first things first as I was a procrastinator but, I have finally conquered myself and I am no longer in Quadrant 1! You see, there are different time quadrants which tell you if you are a 1. Procrastinator, 2. Prioritizer, 3. Yes-Man and 4. Slacker. You need to always stay on top of things and stay in quadrant 2 but it’s not easy, so you must work very hard for it to become a natural thing for you. Another way to becoming a prioritizer is to realize what your big rocks are and what your small rocks are. In other words, take notice of what is important first and those will be your big rocks to accomplish first. Only then will you have space for all the small rocks. Lastly, don’t let fear control you, control your fear. It’s okay to make mistakes if you’re trying to do the right thing. On page 121 in the 7 Habits book, Sean Covey says “Winning means rising each time you fail.” This is telling you that although you failed, if you are willing to rise and try again and pick up your broken pieces, that is winning. This is a hard habit to conquer but once you do it, it will change your
We must focus on the most important things to us than the more required because when you focus on something that is important to you, you will do it with passion. However, when what you do is the most urgent, you do it in a way to get it over with. Habit 3 presents the idea of remaining focused throughout whatever you do and applying your values to whatever decision you decide to make. Stephen Covey even describes this through the quote "The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."
Chapter two of The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, reveals that a cue and a reward alone are not enough for a habit to last. However, for a habit loop to be successful, it must contain a sort of crave for that person (Duhigg 33). For instance, in the 1900’s Claude C. Hopkins was proposed an idea to sell a product called Pepsodent toothpaste. On the other hand, majority of society did not brush their teeth which then resulted in bad hygiene. To grasp his buyers Hopkins announced if you ran your tongue along your teeth you would notice a film layer on top that gave your grin a dull appearance. He then began luring people into thinking everyone should have a beautiful smile! (34-35). To retain his audience once more he added a minty taste
In order to develop a fixed negative reinforcement schedule, I divided my cigarettes into groups allowing myself only three cigarettes a day. I placed my daily ration of cigarettes into envelopes and labeled them for each day of the week. I smoked one cigarette after lunch, one after dinner, and one later at night. I would reward myself with a cigarette after attending classes and eating lunch. I would then reward myself with another cigarette after homework and dinner. Through the course of my week, I violated my regimen only twice. On Wednesday and Friday, I “bummed’ a cigarette from one of my friends. After feeling guilty about violating my regimen, I repented for hours, and swore to myself that I was going to beat my addiction. Primary negative reinforcers also helped me stick with the plan such as improved stamina during physical exercise and more money in my pocket.
Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.
For this self-awareness paper, we were required to give up an addictive behaviour or habit for three weeks. I hope to think that I do not have many addictive habits or behaviours, and therefore it was difficult for me to decide what to give up. An addictive behaviour can be hard to define, however they often increase as time goes on, lead to an inability to stop even if one is motivated to do so, lead to a discontinuation of other activities in favor of the behaviour, and often times are difficult to stop even though they cause harm. Sometimes withdrawal and tolerance are also present (Moss & Dyer, 2010). None of my behaviour really qualify for this, however keeping this definition in mind I decided I should try to give up drinking coffee. Not only is caffeine a mood altering substance, but drinking coffee is one of the few things I do
It is easy for people to turn everyday behavior into a habit and this can happen to any behavior whether good or bad. Any behavior that needs to be changed must
Do you have a habit you would like to eliminate? Is your habit your servant or your master? Are you aware that ultimately, your habits determine your future!
Every highly effective human that I know of has these routines. The crux of the routine is if it not fulfilled; it can have a negative effect. Mostly subtle but with numerous
The behavior that I noticed about myself and I perceived as a habitual action that required change was my frequency in coffee consumption. Before the start of the project, I became aware that I drank about 3-4 cups of coffee per day throughout the course of the entire day, every day of the week.
The main reason why I have been having such a hard time in completely changing my bad habits is because of time. Between school and work I have found it immensely difficult to find time to cook or go to the gym. Every now and then I am able too but it’s not consistent enough to make any real impact on my daily life. I also find that I do not have enough motivation to even attempt to work out or cook. After school or work I’m usually too tired or busy to even think about doing anything else but sleep. After seeing “where you are now” on my life check, I see why it’s necessary to improve my health.
Many individuals experience a compulsive act towards something which causes harm to them and sometimes even those around the individual. Addiction is the term used to describe such behavior and it eventually causes many individuals to lose control over their own actions (Tracy, 2016). Excessive engagement in addictive behaviors or the use of substances is caused by the brain reward effect of it which causes “neuroadaptation circuitry leading to impaired control over further” substance or behavior (American Society of Addiction Medicine, 2011). Millions of individuals around the world have addictions to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and even to behaviors such as shopping and eating. Eating is a normal process since food is essential for survival.
Food addiction appears plausible since the brain pathways that changed to react to natural rewards are triggered by addictive substances (Avena et al., 2008; Davis, 2013). Palatable foods such as sugar have the same characteristics as substances that produce dopamine and opioids. Hence, sugary foods may have addictive potential. The belief that some of the drugs may lead to addiction raises the probability that even some types of food result in food addiction. The study indicates that some people are forced to consume sweet foods in the same way alcoholic may feel forced to drink (Avena et al., 2008). Avena et al., research focused on sugar dependence evidence in a model of animal (Avena et al., 2008). The researchers analyzed four addiction components (bingeing, cross-sensitization, craving, and withdrawal). Further, they related these behaviors to neurochemical changes that take in the brain, and also occur with addictive substances such as alcohol. Neutral systems that progressed to stimulate and reinforce foraging and
For this nine week abstinence experience, I had a couple of habits or behaviors that I thought of giving up. First it was chocolate, then it was cussing, but I finally decided to give up Netflix. I thought of giving up chocolate, because I am definitely a chocoholic, but I noticed that Netflix was starting to take over my life. This is not an exaggeration. After any class when I had free time, on the weekend, or whenever I felt like I had nothing better to do, I had need to watch Netflix. The funny part is I started watching Netflix in the middle of the fall semester. I would get so wrapped up in watching Netflix because I would start watching a television series and I felt the need to know what would happen next and would want to know how the show would end. I chose to give up Netflix because I wanted to work on time management rather than procrastinate with homework and develop healthier habits like get more sleep, and become less anti-social.
A habit can be many things, some good, some not so good. Everyone has habits that they would like to change and maybe improve upon. I believe the majority of habits I have are good ones but some are not. These bad habits are the ones I will talk about.