we all brush our teeth
i mean i hope we do
at some point in our childhood
someone told us that it was really
important for us to brush our teeth and
we believed them we were convinced
society from then on has largely
embraced the act of brushing teeth in
the morning if not twice a day
no matter how tired we are whether we're
about to go to work or if we're on
holiday
somehow we almost always follow through
with this particular habit
it doesn't require that much willpower
and once we've made our way to the basin
brushing our teeth requires almost no
conscious thought
imagine if that is how effortless
exercise was
imagine if we were able to get up and
work out even if we didn't feel like it
why are some habits so effortless while
others are so hard to keep up
then of course there's the other end of
the spectrum that includes habits that
are easy to keep up with but are
precisely ones we don't want to have
but we seem not to think about our
habits all that much i mean that is the
selling point anyway to not have to
think about it
but a vast majority of our actions day
to day are actually automated so imagine
the influence a better understanding of
the habit forming process can have on
our goals and just the overall quality
of life
but first
have you ever wondered why we have
habits in the first place
i mean they are clearly useful to us
life would suck a lot if we had to think
through every step of going to work or
making our espresso
but our ancestors did not have such
tasks
so why would they need habits in the
first place
well it has to do with the neurochemical
significance of a habit
a habit is a very streamlined set of
actions and it is optimized for our
mental resources
research has shown in mice that once
habituated to the act of getting food
from a particular place the mice brain
spends remarkably little energy compared
to mice that actually have to discover
it
similarly our human brains do not have
all the resources in the world
repetitive actions must be streamlined
so that we have reserves for when we
need them
simply put we have finite energy and
routines consume less energy
therefore we gravitate towards routines
and habitual actions
now that we know why habits exist
let us try and understand their inner
workings a little bit
we have to start by paying attention to
one of the hallmarks of habit formation
and that is context
in fact as far as psychology is
concerned habits are defined not for
just being repetitive but being
repetitive in response to contextual
clues
more technically speaking habits are
simply actions that are triggered
automatically in response to contextual
clues that have been associated with
their performance
this context is key
as i just mentioned with the act of
brushing teeth
brushing teeth co-occurs with the act of
waking up from bed and since we all
sleep every day the contextual cue for
brushing teeth is also ever present
which makes it a good habit
other habits such as eating healthy
require just as much contextual support
however if that decision is made for the
wrong reasons such as looking good for
prom as opposed to a higher quality of
life then the habit will be noticeably
harder to maintain
unlike brushing teeth where the cue was
constant
eating healthier to look better in the
photos will only have temporary
contextual co-occurrence
once those photos have been taken the
motivation to maintain good health
evaporates and with it the habit
another interesting thing about
contextual cues is that they are not as
dependent on time as one may think
this means that the habit of brushing
teeth is not so dependent on the time of
day per se as it is on the act of waking
up
now
exposure to sunlight and those specific
things do play a part but what i'm
trying to get at is that doing the same
thing at the same time each day is not
necessarily what creates the longest
lasting habits
this is great news of course as it means
that we don't have to rely on the time
of day to stick to our habits
rather we need a consistent string of
actions to help us form habits
there is more to this
this string of actions is so powerful in
helping us form habits that simply
visualizing the set of actions can make
it more likely for us to follow through
with them
neuroscientist and professor of
neurobiology andrew huberman talks about
this in his podcast referring to hebian
learning
he uses the example of someone trying to
make a habit of making espresso in the
morning
andrew says simply visualizing the steps
of making the espresso makes you more
likely to actually get up and make that
espresso
the procedural stepping through the
steps of the recipe sets in motion the
neurons that are going to be required
it's as though the dominoes fall more
easily all of which makes neurons which
are unlikely to fire more likely to fire
but perhaps one of the most recognizable
works on habits in general lately has
been james clear's book atomic habits
in it he writes your habits are modern
day solutions to ancient desires
new versions of old vices
the underlying motives behind human
behavior remain the same
here james is shining light on the
tremendous power of habits to influence
our actions and long-term life
trajectory because they stem from such
deeply ingrained traits
he likes to make use of the compound
interest analogy in this regard
just one percent improvement over a year
which may seem minuscule in the moment
can compound to massive growth over a
long enough time period
37.78 times if you want to do the math
a one percent decline on the other hand
will reduce us to nothing over the same
period
james is essentially arguing about the
need for smaller more consistent changes
to our lives which will improve it in
the long run
instead of radically changing everything
about our lives overnight and holding on
to unrealistic goals that will truly rid
us of all enthusiasm
james recommends that we pursue smaller
more manageable changes consistently
this of course is no surprise if you
watch the video on why facts don't
change our minds
we humans do not like change we've never
liked change but we do tend to budge if
the change is small enough
facts that are radically different to
the beliefs we already hold are simply
discarded
actions similarly that are simply too
different from what we're used to just
don't stick to our routines very well
relatively smaller changes respect the
finitude of our willpower and allow us
to sustain some semblance of enthusiasm
over the transition
expecting to suddenly write a book from
having written nothing for months is not
only not possible but it will also leave
you feeling miserable and tragically
take away from the joy of the activity
itself
instead it's much better to have small
clear and actionable goals such as today
i will write 200 words
now if habits are indeed so important
they should especially draw our
attention to the bad ones
we've all got them
you know the late night snacking the
fast food the tv benching the phone
overuse
we learn these habits just as quickly as
the good ones if not quicker
but they end up staying on for much
longer
this is again
down to the contextual cues and how
easily they occur for bad habits
for example let's say you end up
snacking in periods of high stress
the cue here is high stress and that is
not something you have to put effort in
to reproduce
it's just there when it's there
unlike working out for example where you
need to discipline yourself and come up
with a routine
stress is always going to be there
whether you like it or not
and when it's there
so is your urge to snack
over time your body optimizes this
process so that once the craving arises
things like getting to the fridge
opening the door take no conscious
effort whatsoever
the neurochemical efficiency of habits
and these with which some of them can be
learned means that bad habits are really
really hard to remove from our lives
people have tried different methods to
remedy this of course
for example setting notifications on
their phones seems like an intuitive
thing to do
at this point we were all more or less
aware of the effects of social media
overuse and just general cell phone
overuse
so some of us set timers to limit how
often we can use or access the
corresponding apps
but we all know what ends up happening
right
we simply override the timer when we
want to
and soon enough the active overriding
becomes second nature
i for one have overridden so many timers
by now that it doesn't even register in
my mind as a conscious decision
it just seems like an additional click i
need to do to get my fix
i have done this with my alarm as well
so well in fact that i can turn my alarm
off in my sleep because i know exactly
where the off button is on my phone
this is the perfect demonstration of
what a habit is capable of
used correctly a habit can easily adapt
and continue to optimize things to make
them reflexive
used incorrectly however they are
ruthless consuming any sort of effort to
change
anecdotal evidence aside
research has also shown that
notifications don't seem to show any
noticeable long-term impact on habit
execution after an initial short-term
spike
harsher penalties however
do show some impact
for example cash penalties
but beyond an experimental setting
implementing a cash penalty is not a
sustainable strategy for most people to
improve themselves
a lot like screen timers on cell phones
these penalties too can be overridden in
the correct environment
andrew huberman suggests that the key to
getting rid of bad habits is not to
punish ourselves so much but rather pair
each execution of the bad habit with a
good one
so to add on to the snacking example
this might mean that every time you
snack late at night you want to pair it
up with an easy to execute good habit
such as forcing yourself to meditation
this sounds a bit unintuitive because it
makes it seem like you're essentially
incentivizing yourself to do the bad
thing more often since there's a reward
at the end of it the good habit
however andrew says that in reality what
ends up happening is that you
consciously rewire your brain to respond
to the contextual cues differently
so now when you get really stressed your
response is twofold
first to snack and then meditate
pairing the good habit with the bad one
supposedly establishes enough of a level
playing field that the wiring for the
bad habit is no longer as dominant as it
used to be
besides as a bonus you end up with a
good habit
the key to controlling our habits is
down to a philosophical distinction
what is the reason for the habits we are
trying to form
do we want to become better versions of
ourselves with each day or do we simply
want to check something off a bucket
list
neither is less moral mind you but the
latter is not all that different from
the impulse gratification that good
habits are supposed to help us avoid
if you enjoy the process meanwhile
it all becomes a bit easier
what may seem monotonous and repetitive
to some can actually be a slow but
meticulous stride
towards a better you
[Music]
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[Music]
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