The Habit Loop
“Habits are Compound Interest of Self-Improvement”
As we know from the last post, those who end up the most “successful” have a growth mindset – they view effort as something you need to constantly put in to improve and learn. But putting in effort sometimes is hard! As human (especially Millennials), we want instant gratification … but unfortunately, effort takes some time to pay off – after doing 50 sit-ups, you don’t instantly have a six-pack, after writing 1 blog post, you don’t instantly have 100,000 subscribers, after taking 1 piano lesson, you don’t instantly play like Mozart. In today’s post, we will talk about using habits to make exerting effort easier.
My Fitness Journey
I had never been able to stick to an exercise routine for more than 3 months. I ran 3x a week to prepare for the Philadelphia Broadstreet race and once the race was over, I stopped running for a long time. I did 20 push-ups everyday before a friend’s wedding and now the thought of doing a push-up makes me want to cry. I started swimming in an effort to pass the ocean lifeguard certification; right around the 3 month mark, I decided to give up and stick to lifeguarding at the pool.
After 3 months of effort and achievement (or cancellation) of my goal, my exercise routine would fizzle out. I would get so upset with myself for not sustaining this routine, chalking it up to the fact that I didn’t have enough discipline and never would.
But then, I went to Tone House. At the time, I had been nearing the 3 month mark of one of my running exercise routines and felt like I was in good shape. I walked into a dark room with red lights. The other people around me were doing the most intense warm-up exercises before the class had even started and I was thinking – okay hot stuff, sit down, but I had no idea what was in store for me. I have no recollection of my first Tone House class, but I remember walking out of the class, with my lungs aching from not getting enough oxygen throughout the workout. I was the absolute worst at every single exercise I did during the workout. But I was hooked and knew I had to go back – I was determined to conquer this challenge.
I started going to Tone House 1x a week, which then escalated to 3x a week and then I committed to going 5x– every week. I became obsessed with my Tone House habit, so much so that some of my co-workers did not even know my name and only knew me as the “Tone House” girl. I slowly made my way from dead last in the class to Group 2 in a normal TH class, 3rd place in the runners event at Turf Wars and even led a mini Tone House class as part of my friends’ wedding.
So how is it that I went from not being able to commit to an exercise routine for more than 3 months to integrating a Tone House routine into my life?
The secret is the Power of Habits.
Why does your brain create habits?
There are so many stimuli that your brain is trying to process every minute. When you are exposed to a stimulus for the first time, the brain will actively work hard to figure out how you should respond to it.
After repeated exposure to a stimulus, your brain will figure out a way to respond to the stimulus that leads to a positive outcome. The brain will decide this is the default way it is going to respond to the stimulus going forward.
By creating a default way in which we respond to a stimulus, we create a habit. Overall, habits evolve to help the brain save effort, so mental energy can be spent on more complex tasks – like writing a blog – rather than brushing your teeth.
The Habit Loop
The habit loop reveals the secret to creating good habits and breaking bad habits. The habit loop consists of 3 steps:
1.. The cue: Stimulus that indicates to your brain that it can go into automatic habit loop
2. The routine: Response to the cue
3. The reward: Sensation felt after completing the routine
If the reward is pleasurable, then you will continue to execute the habit loop.
Humans like to think we’re extremely smart and complex, but habits show us that training ourselves is no more complicated than training a dog.
When I put my fist in a circle (cue), our family dog, Tobi, gives me his paw and rolls over (routine), and then he gets a treat (reward). Tobi continues his routine because he knows it will lead to a yummy reward.
TOBI’s POST TREAT GLOW
But Tobi also has some bad habits – he bites his tail. When his tail is feeling itching (cue), he bites it (routine). This behavior provides him with some momentary relief (reward), but then he has a raw section of his tail for the week. So, my parents put a cone on his head to stop him from continuing these bad habits.
TOBI’s GUILT FOR HIS BAD HABIT
Creating Good Habits
To create new good habits, you need to define your cues and rewards to support completing a routine.
In talking to friends, they wanted to establish some good habits, including: reading more, being more productive at work and working out more. Below are some ways you can use the habit loop to achieve these goals
Reading more: After work, you always come home and sit on the couch, but you want to start reading more. Put the book you want to read on the coffee table next to your couch (your cue). You will then read the book (your routine). You need to customize the reward to fit your personality and ensure that it’s something that you enjoy in order to continue to fuel the habit loop. Maybe it’s a cup of tea, listening to music, watching an episode of a TV show, doodling, lighting a candle, taking a bubble bath.
Being more productive at work: We all know how it goes, you get to work and sit down to work on this very, very, very important project you have to get done and 5 minutes into focusing, you’re on Instagram. Get a coffee, tea or water and sit down at your desk. Put your phone in a drawer away from you. Close your office door. By changing these things in your environment, you are creating a cue to start working. Then you will work productively for 30-60 minutes (your routine). Finally, you get your reward – maybe that’s checking your phone, getting another cup of coffee, tea or water, talking to a co-worker for 15 minutes – whatever it is, just make sure you’re excited to do it and it will fuel your cycle of productivity.
Working out more: For me, my cue for my Tone House routine was my alarm going off at 5:46 (exactly the amount of time I needed to make it to the Tone House studio for the 6:15am class) and seeing my running shoes right next to my phone alarm. I would complete the Tone House class, my routine. My reward for the Tone House routine was initially the dopamine rush after completing class, but ultimately the sustainable reward was the friends and community I built there.
Why Can’t We Stick With Good Habits?
We’re impatient: Many good habits fail to continue because people don’t achieve the desired outcome quick enough. One of my favorite analogies is shown below. In heating up an ice cube, you can go from 25 to 31 degrees, with nothing changing in the ice cube. Suddenly, at 32 degrees, the ice cube will melt. Many people will go from 25 to 31 degrees in pursuing their habits and stop because they are not getting the desired grandiose outcome (e.g., a six pack, reading 52 books, savings thousands of dollars). Therefore, it is important to build mini rewards into the habit loop, so you still continue to feel positive about your progress before any transformational change happens.
We let perfect be the enemy of good enough: It’s often better to start small and gain some momentum in creating your habits, as opposed to setting grandiose plans, which you won’t achieve. You’ll notice that my Tone House habit escalated over time – I started off going 1x a week, then 3x a week and then 5x a week – this helped me sustain my habit.
Our identity sabotages our habits: Let’s say you want to create a habit to workout more. However, you believe that you are an unhealthy, unathletic person. Humans hate feeling inconsistent, so we will self-sabotage habits that do not align with the vision of ourselves – so there goes your workout routine. One of the reasons my Tone House routine was so successful is that it started to shift my self-identity. Being athletic and part of the Tone House community became a core part of my identity. The more I went to Tone House, the more it reinforced this new self-identity, which further fueled the habit.
Breaking Bad Habits – Remove the Cue
We all have those bad habits that we want to break –buying too many clothes, checking our phones non-stop, watching 4 episodes of Game of Thrones before bed (even though we promised ourselves we’d only watch ½ an episode), eating a bag of Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups. Luckily these bad habits are easier to break by simply removing the cue, so you don’t engage in the routine.
Those with few bad habits do not have more will power than others – they simply don’t put themselves in situations with tempting cues. To stop these types of bad habits, simply change your environment to remove the cue that leads to an undesirable routine.
Breaking Bad Habits – Change the Routine
Often, our worst behavior is driven by uncomfortable emotions – stress, anxiety, anger, sadness. We turn to nail biting, eating sugary sweets, smoking, drinking, yelling, etc. to address these feelings. They provide momentarily reward, but long-term are detrimental. Unfortunately, we are humans and these emotions don’t go away, so we’re always going to have those feelings be our cue. However, we can change our routine from these more destructive ways of dealing with negative emotions to more positive ways of dealing with stress – taking deep breaths, going on a walk, calling a friend, taking a bubble bath.
Studies have found that alcoholics who successfully become sober through AA find activities other than drinking to address their negative feelings, such as going to an art class, going bike riding, etc. These activities need to provide the same positive feeling that being in a drinking situation does – feeling social, feeling like you belong, etc.
Downsides of habits
Despite all the benefits associated with building positive habits, there are drawbacks to habits overall.
When I started going to Tone House 5x week, I was so committed to sticking with my habit that made me “athletic” and “successful.” I refused to travel for work (and most of the time, even for fun), because I couldn’t disrupt my habits. I refused to try other workout classes. I even refused to skip a day of Tone House, even if my body was aching. And because of this, I eventually got a stress fracture and had to stop going to Tone House.
Initially, I was devastated – people did not understand that losing Tone House was not just losing a workout routine for me – it was also losing part of my identity and community. However, it was a blessing in disguise because now I am more receptive to trying out different workout routines and listen to my body when it needs a rest. As someone who loves habits and routine, I still have to remind myself that 1 routine is not conducive to the next 80 years off my life. Life continues to evolve and your habits must evolve too.
Here’s my ask to you
Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my first post – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!!
I would love any feedback you have on my posts. What does and doesn’t resonate – charts, pictures, stories or facts? Where did you feel confused or bored in the post? Is it too long or too short? What topics or examples were the most or least interesting or helpful?
But, most of all, I would love for you to e-mail me (nicoleepollack@gmail.com) and tell me how you’re creating good habits or breaking bad habits.
You can learn more about habits using the links below: