Your Future Self Will Thank You by Drew Dyck

Author:Drew Dyck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2019-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

SWAP AND START SMALL

“A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit,” wrote the sixteenth-century theologian Desiderius Erasmus. Five centuries later we understand just how right he was. Study after study has demonstrated the wisdom of starting a new habit by replacing an old one. By doing this, you essentially get a two-for-one deal: you lose a bad habit, while gaining a good one. Smokers, for instance, are very unlikely to quit if they don’t find some replacement behavior to smoking. “You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it,” Duhigg writes. And the way to change it is to perform a sort of surgery on the loop of the bad habit. “To change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.”17

When trying to establish a new, healthy habit, start small. If you try to do too much on Day One you’ll drain your willpower and fail to repeat the behavior the next day. And without repetition, new habits can’t take hold. Remember: at the outset, you’re trying to trick your brain into forming a new habit. Psychologists refer to this approach as forming “tiny” or “micro” habits. It’s a tactic to use the habit loop to create a pattern of behavior that you can build on.

Say you want to start running every morning. Begin by identifying a cue: maybe it’s drinking a health shake or seeing your running shoes at the front door. Then perform the routine in a way that doesn’t demand exerting too much effort. Perhaps it’s just walking around the block once. Or it could be even smaller: put your shoes on and jog in place for thirty seconds. When you finish, give yourself a reward. It could be a cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate, or a few minutes watching TV.

At first, it might feel silly to reward yourself for completing such a small task. But remember, you’re conditioning your brain. When you see those shoes by the door, your brain will expect exercise. As you exercise, it will begin anticipating a reward. As you move through this habit loop repeatedly—cue, routine, reward—the behavior will become cemented into your life, and you can gradually increase the intensity of your workouts. Soon you’ll head out to run every morning without even thinking about it.

Another cardinal rule of habit formation: be consistent. Don’t run first thing in the morning one day, and go for an evening jog the next. Pick a time and try to stick with it. If you’re trying to read your Bible every day, try to do it at the same time, in the same room, in the same chair. When it comes to making a habit stick, familiarity is key. I’m not suggesting you slog through new practices—especially spiritual ones—without feeling or passion. But you’re far more likely to stick with the new behavior through the crucial habit-forming window if you keep the conditions the same.

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