Introduction

If we are going to talk about living a brain healthy life, we have to talk about habit formation.

In order for you to make real, sustainable changes to your lifestyle and brain health, we need to talk about your habits and how they are ruling your life.

Seventy percent of the things you do in a week, in a month, in a year are not conscious decisions. They are actually habits that you have done so often that they just become what you do.

Whether you like it or not, habits play a huge part of your life. So, if you want to improve your lifestyle, and integrate new habits to support your brain health journey, you have to develop healthy habits.

 What is a Habit?

A habit is formed when a behaviour becomes automatic and takes places without much conscious thought or effort.

How long does it take to form a good habit?

• 21 days?

• 30 days?

• 66 days?

The truth of the matter is that habit formation is ongoing. According to James Clear (author of Atomic Habits ), in order to make a habit automatic and learned is repetition. You have to “put in your reps” in order to develop a behaviour that is dependent on a “cue” and exists outside of your “motivated” tendencies.

How do habits work?

A habit consists of three things:

1. A cue (or trigger) – something happens and your brain goes “now we do this”.

2. An action -  the habitual behaviour

3. A reward – the benefit of executing the behaviour.

Let’s take for example, my morning journaling habit. Every morning I write in my journal to express gratitude and set my intentions for the day.

For my journaling habit, the cue is pouring my morning cup of coffee. The action of pouring my morning cup of coffee alerts to my brain that it is now time to write in my journal.

The action, of course, is the act of writing in my journal.

The reward is that I feel grateful and focused for the day ahead.

Adopting healthy habits

When starting to build healthier habits, know where to focus your attention. You cannot often change the cue. For example, you can’t change the fact that you are experiencing a stressful situation, but you can change the action. So, instead of having a drink because you are stressed, go for a walk, call a friend, cook a meal, or take a 2-minute mindfulness break. The reward should still be similar – you feel less stressed after the action.

Habits are so central to building a healthy lifestyle, but they can also be a huge barrier (when habits are unhealthy). Understanding how habits are formed can help facilitate brain healthy habits.

 The Power of Tracking

When building healthy habits, it is really powerful to keep track of your success. It helps build confidence.

6 Tips on Form Healthy Habits:

1. Break goals down into manageable chunks: Identify the steps required to form a good habit.

2. Make the habit really easy to start: Behaviours are hard to start but easy to finish. Since most of the friction associated with a given behaviour happens at the beginning of the action, the most important piece is to get started. This is often the “cue” in the habit formation model. What starts the behaviour?

3. Make the habit attractive: James Clear’s cardinal rule of habit formation: make the desired habit satisfying in some way

 “Habits that are immediately rewarding are more likely to be repeated” – James Clear

4. Ground your habits in your identity.

Each of your behaviours casts a vote for who you want to become

• If you go to the gym, you cast a vote for someone who is fit & exercises

• If you play the guitar, you cast a vote for a musician who plays an instrument

• If you ___, then you cast a vote for ____.

James Clear suggests a simple two step process to start rewriting our identities in his book Atomic Habits. First, decide who you want to be. Second, use small wins to reinforce that identity.

5. Surround yourself with people who engage in the habit you want to form.

“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is that normal behavior. New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day.” – James Clear

6. Create an environment that supports your habits

Change your environment to make it easy for you to show up. Even a little bit of friction will make people want to quit, so optimize your environment to reduce friction.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:

To start a good habit: reduce friction and master the art of showing up.

 Find out more about James Clear’s book Atomic Habits here