How to Change a Habit by Scott Young

Author:Scott Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2011-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

Replacement Theory

Another advanced method for changing habits is replacement theory. Replacement theory is basically the idea that you can’t get rid of a bad habit. Habits can’t be eliminated, only replaced with other habits. In order to keep your resources and needs conserved, every time you remove a bad habit it needs to be replaced with something better. If you wanted to quit smoking, replacement theory would suggest that you need to find another habit to switch it with.

Replacement theory isn’t completely necessary since the process of creating habits to do, not avoid, something are usually done automatically. If you want to start exercising, isn’t usually necessary to come up with a complex approach to replace the habit with something else. Usually you will just move to another habit.

How does replacement theory work? The idea is that for every habit you eliminate, you offer up an alternative habit that you will do instead. So if you decide to eliminate junk food, what will you eat or do instead? You may decide to remove the chips from your house and replace them with carrots or celery. You could also eliminate your junk food and decide to use reading as an alternative for when you feel the urge to snack.

Replacement theory is useful is in three areas:

1. To make adjustment easier. Creating a specific replacement habit makes the initial thirty days less severe.

2. To reinforce one alternative. Not following replacement theory can often create a weak set of habits that can be easily pushed aside making your change more vulnerable to sliding back.

3. To conserve needs. Eliminating a habit can sometimes distort your internal needs. Replacement theory suggests a way to reduce this problem.

Easier Adjustments

Large negative habits often result in, “Now what?” You’ve gotten rid of the junk food, television or any other bad habit and you now don’t know what to do instead. Coming up with a specific replacement strategy will help ease the transition phase.

With any negative habit the process of replacement always occurs. When you give up television, the time you once devoted to television must get reallocated to other sources somehow. The problem is that it can take a few days to reallocate these resources which puts strain on your adjustment period. Using replacement theory means that you are more likely to make it past the sprint and drag during the first ten days.

Reinforce an Alternative

The second benefit of replacement theory is it makes your habits less vulnerable to slide backwards later. In a normal conditioning process, you might replace your television watching with habits of reading, work, playing games, socializing or taking up new artistic pursuits.

Although these are good alternatives, you may only be weakly associated to doing any one of those. This means that having only one conditioned alternative, say reading, means that if you eventually fall back you will probably fall back on your alternative and not on the original habit. So if a particular obstacle makes following your habit difficult, instead of falling back on watching television as your default, you are more likely to fall back on reading.

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