How many time have we tried to change a habit, or to form a new one – and failed? We start well, but somewhere down the road, we end up slipping into familiar territory again.
They say that it takes 21 days to make or change a habit. I say it takes more than just days. It takes 21 days, of conscious effort.
What is a habit?
Charles Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, that a habit is a loop of three components – a trigger, a routine and a reward.
The trigger is a cue to do something. Like when you wake up, the first thing you tend to do is check your phone. The cue is the act of waking up (and finding the phone beside your bed), the routine is to check social media or your emails, and the reward is the dopamine that is generated once you are satiated with the morning catchup.
So how do we form a habit? By employing this three-step loop on purpose.
For example, when you start your work day (lets say at 9 am), even when working from home, use that trigger to change the normal routine of checking your emails (and getting overwhelmed) to writing down three things that you want to achieve that day. The reward is the sense of satisfaction that you are able to have a fresh start with a focused approach, rather than a haphazard one.
That’s how you change a bad habit as well. Cue remains the same, so does experiencing a reward. Change the routine in between.
What habit you want to (attempt to) change?