Category: how to break a bad habit

delay gratification, end procrastination, how to break a bad habit, kill procrastination, REVERSE THE 5-MINUTE RULE

REVERSE THE 5-MINUTE RULE TO BREAK A BAD HABIT

“one way to motivate a switch is to shrink the change, which makes people feel “big” relative to the challenge.” ― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

While shrinking the commitment is primarily used to start good habits, it can also be a tool to break bad ones. To break a bad habit, we use it as a delaying strategy. We can avoid overeating by delaying our consumption. Say to yourself, “I am going to drink a glass of water and wait for 5-minutes. If I am still hungry, I can have a little more.” Physiologically, you are giving your body more time to register that it is full and hydrated. Psychologically, you are making the reward less desirable.

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bad habits, behavior change, creating habits, good habits, habit, habit change, habit formation, habit loop, how to break a bad habit, Interrupt a bad habit, mini habits, weight loss

WHY HABITS ARE SO IMPORTANT

“You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” John C. Maxwell

Habits hold the key to achieving a strong, lean body full of energy and vitality. It is our daily routines that make us who we are. According to the latest research, we spend half of our lives performing habits, but very few people understand them. My goal is to help you better understand the power of habits and why they exist.

There are two characteristics of good habits that make them invaluable. First, we perform them repeatedly, which means their benefits will cumulate. Second, they are reflexive. They don’t require motivation or willpower to do. We don’t think about habits. If you are like me, you can recall doing something out of habit that made no sense at all, like reaching for your phone when it’s dead.  Once we establish a habit, we respond to a contextual cue. It is part of the reason we don’t pay much attention to them.

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Midnight munchies
BDNF, developing willpower, fat loss, habit, habit change, how to break a bad habit, willpower, willpower depletion

ENVIRONMENT TRUMPS WILLPOWER

Change doesn’t have to be difficult. The belief that “change is hard” is one of the biggest myths about human behavior. When we design a positive environment, change happens naturally. Making the right behavior the easier or only option is the key. The more committed you are to shape your environment, the less willpower you’ll need. Anyone serious about losing weight should throw away all the junk food in their home. This would make eating junk food impossible. Continue reading ENVIRONMENT TRUMPS WILLPOWER

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basic habit loop
atomic habits, bad habits, BDNF, behavior change, good habits, habit change, habit loop, how to break a bad habit, Interrupt a bad habit, The Fat Loss Habit, The Golden Rule of Habit Change, The Power of Habit

A Practical Framework for Behavior Change

He reverses these four laws to break a bad habit.  Make the Cue invisible, the Reward unattractive, the Routine harder to execute, and the Reward unsatisfying. He does a fantastic job of providing practical suggestions on how to accomplish each law.[i] James Clear’s book complements Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. The Power of Habit helps us to understand habits, but it isn’t a manual for behavior change. Atomic Habits fulfills that role, providing actionable strategies in a simple to follow format. This book has an even narrower focus. It seeks to combine the strategies of behavior change with tactics designed to produce a leaner fitter body. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu Continue reading A Practical Framework for Behavior Change

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basic habit loop
atomic habits, bad habits, BDNF, behavior change, habit change, habit loop, how to break a bad habit, Interrupt a bad habit, The Fat Loss Habit, The Golden Rule of Habit Change, The Power of Habit, un clavo saca otro clavo

The Golden Rule of Habit Change

Cues in our environment trigger a response. We need to pre-decided what our new response will be. Our Rider cannot hesitate to guide the Elephant down a new path, instead of performing the well-condition one. We must give our Elephant a new way forward. Instead of telling ourselves not to do something, we need to have an alternative action ready to go. Telling ourselves not to do something, fixates our mind on doing it. When we attempt to suppress a thought, we make things worse. We begin to fixate on it instead. Psychologists call this Ironic Theory. Continue reading The Golden Rule of Habit Change

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