How Do You Implement Lasting Habit Changes?

A habit is defined by the American Association of Psychology as a’ well-learned behavior or automatic sequence of behaviors that is relatively situation specific and over time has become motorically reflexive and independent of motivational or cognitive influence - that is, it is performed, with little or no conscious intent’. As we come to the second half of this year, it is time to check in with our habits and goals. This time of year when we provide ourselves time to reflect, it is allowing us to take adaptive shifts if we feel like we are falling short of meeting our goals and aspirations of 2025. It is never too late to learn strategies to make adaptive changes to end this year strong and provide better support to continue these habits into years to come.

Statistically, studies have shown that 43% of what we do on a daily basis is done habitually. Studies have also shown that it can take an average of 2 months to 9 months to form a new habit and break old ones. When evaluating the habits that are effective and ineffective in our lives, a helpful tool for building awareness is by engaging in a tracker. When engaging in a tracker you want to log current habits and identify if these are helpful or have become barriers to your current goals. After recognizing the habits you’d like to change, the next step is to prioritize which to start with. It is important to only start with 1 to 2 habits at a time. Attempting to change all recognized unhealthy habits at once can lead to burn out and have a less chance of successful change long term. 

Some other strategies that can be useful are habit formulation and habit stacking. Habit formulation includes understanding how a habit is successfully formed, specifically through three components - cue, behavior, reward. A cue is what triggers and initiates the habit, the behavior is the habit, and the reward is the reinforcement of the habit. An example of an unhealthy habit would be, a stressful work day (cue) causing you to binge eat (behavior) to allow yourself to feel better (reward). If you were wanting to make a change to a more adaptive habit then you would prepare a behavior change option that would replace the behavior after the cue. For example: a stressful work day (cue) replacing binge eating with you engaging in journaling or taking a break to walk outside (behavior) to feel less stress (reward). 

Habit stacking is an effective strategy to use when you are trying to implement a new behavior into your routine. It helps us remember the new habit we are trying to form. An example of habit stacking would include placing the new habit after an already established healthy habit. For example, if you were trying to implement more self development then habit stacking would look like this - “on my weekly morning work commute, I will listen to a self development podcast Monday through Friday.” What is fantastic about the brain is it adaptable to change, which allows us the possibility to break old habits and rewire neurons to form healthier ones. 

Call our office at 859.338.0466 if you're needing assistance to help rebuild healthier habits and finish this year off strong! Our current offices are located in Lexington, Frankfort, and Richmond, KY. We have been trusted mental health professionals in Central Kentucky for over 22 years! 



Articles and Resources:

https://dictionary.apa.org/habit

https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking

https://jamesclear.com/new-habit

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3505409/

https://positivepsychology.com/how-habits-are-formed/

https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Building-New-Habits.pdf