Two Logical Ways to Break a Habit

I remember the story of my father about the history of the place we are currently residing at. He vividly described that our place was once a farm field, and grass grew as tall as a man. I imagine the highways we have now were once grasslands, and I think it is due to the fact that it is a necessity to upgrade the roads to accommodate the ever increasing volume of vehicles.

Don’t you know that a habit is made just like a highway is formed? Wikipedia describes it as:

A habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. The process by which new behaviours become automatic is habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, but it is possible to form new habits through repetition. As behaviors are repeated in a consistent context, there is an incremental increase in the link between the context and the action. This increases the automaticity of the behavior in that context. Features of an automatic behavior are all or some of: efficiency, lack of awareness, unintentionality, and uncontrollability.

When an action is done, it is being imprinted as a thin pathway in our Nervous System (the sensory and control apparatus consisting of a network of nerve cells connecting to the brain). When the same action is repeated over and over again, the pathway becomes thicker and becomes the “automatic” pathway for such an action. At this time, it seems that it is already so hard to break that habit.

But, there is still a good news for you! If you are dealing with a bad habit that you wish to break, there is still a way to make that possible.

I remember what my mentor (Angelo Gratela) told me before, “Anything that are learned, can be unlearned.”

Here are 2 uncomplicated steps to break a habit; though, these are easier said than done, and most of the times you will see yourself fighting your “automatic” urges. However, when your motivation is low, you need to identify first what is the source of that apathy.

2 Logical Ways to Break a Habit

1. Recognize the reason why you now need to break the habit.

Most of the times when a habit has already been formed, it usually is unnoticeable. And when the habit has not been noticed at all, the consequences are usually not recognized at once as well. Let me give you a clear example. It is quite late already when one starts to realize that smoking is indeed very dangerous to his health. Usually, he begins to experience hardness of breathing and he easily gets exhausted. In some cases, one does not recognize it at all which leads to serious respiratory conditions.

However, if you recognize it at the early stage and consider its consequences, you are now taking the first step to break that habit. It is extremely helpful if you would take into account the entire consequences, which could include if it might have been affecting your loved ones or your intermediate family already. This will be your driving force to push you forward in breaking that habit.

2. Break the habit with a habit.

A solid paved highway is really hard to demolish, but it is not impossible to destroy one. An old habit that is not beneficial is also hard to break, but it is not impossible to crack one as well. The only way to break a bad habit is by creating new beneficial habits. Remember the concept of “neural pathways”? In creating new habits, you are making new “possible” pathways whenever the action is initiated. Repeating these would solidify a used-to-be narrow trodden path into a great paved highway! This could mean engaging into a certain sports or task where you feel challenged. Joining a community as your support group is also important. In this way, you have someone or group of people who you are accountable to.

Actually, this is also what the Bible says in Romans 12:21:

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

We are still on the 3^rd day of January, the first month of the year. I hope that you would grab this chance to start building new helpful habits today!

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found at http://www.timothyhallinan.com/blog/?p=4047