How to Change Habits

Good habits build success. We hear it all the time. But what happens if no one ever taught you how to create those good habits? Emotions can trigger the brain to remember and react differently. For example, in this Discover Magazine article, a doctor describes how a woman couldn’t remember anything until fear established a foothold and connected with something very primal. The doctor’s research discovered laughter, fear, or any intense emotion paired with an action helps your brain to embed the memory and create immediate recall.

Why is it so hard to build success habits?

Immediate recall sounds great, right? Not so much if it’s based in negative habits. Human beings will fight harder to avoid pain than they will to gain pleasure. But pain often becomes familiar and we fear the unknown more than the familiar. So, it takes a bit deeper intention than a scare to build a new habit. As researchers discovered in habit reversal training, routine is powerful. We must find the cue that starts the cycle first and then replace the response. The reward stays the same. If you want to build a new habit, you can do that by creating a new routine that has each of these elements: a cue, a response (your behavior), and a reward.

Humans utilize muscle memory to obtain expected rewards. Physical interruption replacing the old response will help us change a bad habit. In The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business, the author goes deeply into the habit loop, the craving brain, and the golden rule of habit change. The examples of Starbuck’s success, crisis management, and setting goals will be helpful to anyone wanting to change bad habits and build success habits.

If you’d like personalized assistance for your company, employees, or your self the Lee Group consultants are skilled in helping with successful business practices and habits. Contact us today.