“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
– James Clear, Atomic Habits
A better way to create new habits
Use the Habit Loop worksheet to let old habits go and successfully adopt new ones.
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear defines a Habit Loop consisting of four phases:
CUE: The event that triggers the habit.
CRAVING: The desire for a particular state or outcome.
RESPONSE: The thought or action you take. Your response forms the habit.
REWARD: The payoff you get from your response.
There are two sides to the habit equation: minimising the old habit you want to break and optimising the new habit you want to make. This means you need to address the cue, craving, response and reward for both the old behaviour and the new behaviour.
Specifically, you want to make the new behaviour more obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. And make the old behaviour more invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying.
Here’s a table of the stages and aims for each side of the habit equation:
How you do this is up to you, but the general habit-changing process is always the same:
Define the behaviour you want to change
Come up with ways to discourage the old behaviour
Identify a behaviour you'd like to replace it with instead
Come up with ways to encourage the new behaviour
Put your strategies into practice and make adjustments as necessary
My Habit Loop worksheet walks you through this process, including and easy-to-follow example (how to stop checking your phone).
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