Atomic Habits – How to Make Positive Changes in Life?

How do habits work?

Established habits, or activities we perform routinely, are the best way to support our physical and mental health. Knowing the mechanisms of formation and persistence of new habits, you can consciously use them in daily life.

Habits are formed through regular repetition of a behaviour. Your mind, recognising that you are in a situation similar to those you have experienced before, creates neuronal pathways responsible for repetitive sequences of events. This makes it easy to replicate the same behaviours without having to think about it for a long time, which eliminates the effort involved in making decisions. You perform activities according to a set pattern, for example: “I run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m.” Unfortunately, this mechanism also works the other way – if you reach for crisps always while watching a TV show, it can become increasingly difficult to consider whether it is actually beneficial to your health.

What is a habit loop?

The habit loop is a concept popularised by Charles Duhigg in his 2012 book “The Power of Habit”. It explains how habits are formed and how we can consciously use this to implement habits that will support us and eliminate those that are undesirable. This model consists of four elements:

1. Cue

The cue, or habit-initiating stimulus, can be both external and internal. To lead to the formation of a new habit, the stimulus must be repeated regularly. There are five categories of such cues:

• place – a stimulus associated with a specific location, such as the sight of a favourite cafe can encourage you to drink coffee,
• time of day – habits can be associated with a specific time; for example, you associate evening with applying cream to the face,
• emotional state – emotions and thoughts can trigger habitual behaviour, such as stress can lead to snacking,
• other people – the presence of certain people can trigger certain habits, such as smoking cigarettes comes more easily in the company of smokers,
• immediately preceding activities – a trigger resulting from the combination of two consecutive activities, such as brushing teeth after breakfast.

2. Routine (behaviour)

The behaviour following a cue is otherwise known as the essence of a habit. It can be both physical (the activity being performed) and mental or emotional. These behaviours can be simple, such as putting toothpaste on a toothbrush, or more complex, such as the order in which you put on clothes when you get dressed in the morning. In a habit loop, behaviour becomes automatic over time. By repeating the same activity many times, you create a connection in your brain between the cue and the routine, which leads to the formation of a habit.

3. Reward

A reward is a positive result, consequence or satisfaction felt after an activity. It reinforces the forming habit, perpetuating your behaviour and encouraging your brain to remember and reproduce the habit loop in the future. Rewards can take many forms, such as the feeling of satisfaction and contentment from achieving a goal, the pleasure felt physically, or the sense of relief after a stressful situation. Our brains are constantly on the lookout for these types of rewards, which promotes habit formation by remembering the habit loops played out. Over time, the brain begins to associate the cue directly with the reward, making us perform the behaviour automatically, with minimal mental effort. 

4. Craving

Craving is another element of the habit loop, which is a major contributor to its formation. It is a force that prompts our brains to make connections between cues and rewards. For example, if you buy a cake every day at work, which you then eat during your break, it is not the act of eating itself that motivates you to repeat the habit, but the craving to take a break from work, the feeling of comfort and pleasure, and the boost of energy that comes from consuming sugar. 

What can be done to change habits?

Since habits function according to a cue-reward cycle, Duhigg suggests that the key to changing habits is to break the habit loop and modify its elements. So if you want to stop eating crisps while watching a TV series, try to:

1. Identify the trigger – check what situations or circumstances lead to a particular behaviour, e.g. a trigger for craving crisps could be watching a TV series.
2. Modify the habit – once you know the cue that causes a particular behaviour, you can modify the behaviour that follows it, such as replacing crisps with sliced apples.
3. Change the reward – find a gratification that satisfies your craving related to a particular habit. If the reason for reaching for crisps was the satisfaction derived from munching, the crunchiness of the apples may be just as nice. This way, despite modification of the habit, you will not be deprived of the reward.

The key role of context

Habit formation is largely based on repeating a certain activity. Research indicates that habits are formed when an activity is performed repeatedly in the same context, i.e. at a specific time and place. A study published in 2010 suggests that it takes an average of 66 days to form a new habit. However, this time may vary depending on the complexity of the activity and the individual characteristics of the person implementing the new habit.

Over time, repeated actions become automatic and even subconscious. Developing simpler habits, such as drinking a glass of water in the morning, requires fewer repetitions. In contrast, for more complex habits, such as regular exercise, the time required to fully automate them can be up to 254 days.

Atomic habits – tiny changes, remarkable results

In his book “Atomic Habits”, James Clear emphasises that small, seemingly trivial changes can, over time, have huge effects in terms of forming and changing habits, contributing to improving our well-being and making positive changes in our lives. The author proposes a model for building new habits, known as the “Four Laws of Behaviour Change”:

• Cue – make it obvious, visible and noticeable.
• Craving – make it attractive. Combine the habit with something desirable to motivate yourself to perform the activity.
• Routine (behaviour) – make it as easy to do as possible.
• Reward – make it satisfying and immediate so that it motivates you to repeat the behaviour.

This model can also be reversed to break unsupportive habits. If you want to give up something that doesn’t serve you, try the following approach to change:

• Cue – make it invisible. For example, if on your way home from work you pass a fast food restaurant that encourages you to eat there, change your driving route.
• Craving – make it unattractive. For example, you can watch a documentary that shows the disastrous health consequences of eating fast food frequently.
• Routine (behaviour) – make it difficult. Why not start coming home from work with a colleague who has a healthy lifestyle? In their presence, you will find it more difficult to approach fast food restaurants.
• Reward – make it unsatisfying. Imagine the huge amounts of unhealthy fat, salt and sugar contained in fast food.

Clear also gives many valuable tips on how to facilitate working on your habits. Here are some of them:

1. The role of identity in building healthy habits. Habits are associated not only with the activities we engage in, but also with our identities – so long-term changes occur when we change our self-perception. Instead of focusing on the consequences of changing habits (e.g. weight loss), you should devote attention to becoming a person who exhibits desirable behaviours and values, such as a person who makes healthy eating decisions.
2. The 2 minute rule. This is a simple rule developed by the author suggesting that when you try to create a new habit, you should choose one that takes a maximum of 2 minutes to complete. This will reduce your reluctance to undertake a new activity and increase the chances that the new habit will be adopted. For example, instead of immediately doing 30 minutes of exercise every day, start by stretching for 2 minutes – this way you get used to repeating this small activity regularly.
3. Overlapping habits. Clear suggests pairing habits to increase the chance that a new habit will take hold. The principle involves superimposing a new habit on top of an existing one, which helps reinforce the cue. For example, after brushing your teeth (an existing habit), perform skin care (a new habit).
4. Influence of the environment on habits. According to the author, our environment has a huge impact on our habits. By changing it, we can increase the chances of new habits taking hold and make it more difficult to perform undesirable ones.
5. A plateau of latent potential. Clear introduces the concept of plateau of latent potential – a situation in which a repeated activity does not bring immediate results, so you often become discouraged before you reach your goal. The author stresses the importance of consistency and regularity, and sticking to set goals – your efforts will yield results over time, you just need to be patient and not get discouraged.
6. Tracking progress. Tracking your progress in forming a new habit is a helpful and simple way to motivate yourself. It involves marking, for example in a calendar, the days on which you performed an activity related to the habit, which will motivate you and encourage you to repeat it regularly, so as not to break the good streak. However, it is important not to be discouraged if – for reasons beyond your control – you skip one day and return to the habit the next day.

By understanding the rules that govern our minds, we can perform small activities on a daily basis in such a way that they enhance the quality of our lives. Let’s also remember to have the right attitude to this type of change. Building a sense of empowerment, i.e. believing that we have the potential and ability to influence our lifestyles, will create the best environment to effectively introduce new habits.

If you want to read the books “The Power of Habit” or “Atomic Habits”, as part of MultiLife you have access to the Legimi platform, which offers thousands of e-books and audiobooks.

_References:

1. 1. _{Duhigg C., The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House, 2012.}
   2. _{Lally P., van Jaarsveld C. H. M., Pott H. W. W., Wardle, J., How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009, 2010.}
   3. _{Wood W., Tam L., Witt M., Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of personality and social psychology. 88. 918-33. 10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918., 2005.}
   4. _{Clear J., Atomowe Nawyki, Wydawnictwo Galaktyka, 2019.}