I am positive almost that it is not the first time you hear the word “habit”. It refers to processed that, although happen inside the human mind, do not follow the same pattern as memories. They become automated processes, and the question remains: What can the average person do with the help of habits?
Well, as far as specialists have said, habits can be either destructive or beneficial. What makes the difference is how you set them, and the reason they appeared in your life.
What I am trying to say is that they can also be automatically generated, and most of the times it’s bad. What you want is to create your own healthy habits: eating better, sleeping well, exercising;
The way these habits work is the simple pattern of what specialist’s call „the habit loop”. This loop is made of three basic elements:
- A cue, which often refers to a certain thought, or maybe even an event that causes a behavior
- A routine: a continuous behavior that you adopt almost involuntarily
- A reward: the natural reaction of our bodies and minds after we do a certain amount of work and we receive a certain reward: work out, reward yourself with cake, studied hard for exams, reward yourself with an hour of gaming, and many others.
When you want to achieve something, whether it’s linked to weight loss or even good grades habits are your friend here. Although 40% of them are automated, it’s not always the case that the one in your favor are too. You need to work for whatever you want to achieve, and not choose the easier comfort path. That is my honest thought over this subject. Without them, not much could be done, whatever result you are trying to achieve.
There needs to be a cue, something to give you the hint that you need to start working on your project, a routine, doing that certain thing perfectly every single day for a long period of time, and finally a well-deserved reward directly linked to the amount of work that you put in. Pretty simple, right?
One way of finding achievable habits is creating a S.M.A.R.T. objective for them and trying to find out some aspects about it and whether they are achievable or not.
SMART= Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based
Start looking for answers to those words above, try and find out the exact thing you want and how a habit could solve the problem involved. Then, set a measurable goal, something specific that could not be altered in any single way. For example, don’t set up a goal to eat less, set up a goal to eat 500 calories less, something specific. Then, you should question whether this habit that you are trying to create is worth it or not, and if you can actually achieve it. Finally, you should let out a schedule, or a certain time of the day the habits starts at.
Although simple, habit creating is something that we as humans, although think we know everything of, there’s much more to it than just tricking your brain and starting to eat less, sleep more, etc.
