Creatures of Habit

Beep, beep, beep, beep.  My alarm rang out causing me to roll over to stop the beeping sound.  I pushed the button on my phone and laid in bed waiting for my eyes to come into focus.  After a moment, I swung my legs off the side of the bed and sat there starring into the darkness of the room.  Another few seconds passed and I turned the flashlight on my phone on and moved over to my dresser.  I grab some socks first, then move over to determine which pants I will wear today which will ultimately determine what shirt I’ll wear.  Finally, finished dressing myself, I turn back to my phone and turn off my back up alarm before heading downstairs to start making breakfast.  Once downstairs a whole new set of habits (or routines) take hold and this continues until I get to work.  My whole morning passes in a sort of blur as I follow one routine after another.  Take a moment and think about the routines and habits in your life.  There are bound to be good and bad habits.  Habits you are fully aware of and ones that are a little less obvious.  Make no mistake though, everything we do is a product of our habits and routines, and they all start with a simple trigger.

To fully understand how we operate, let’s first take a look at how habits work and identify a few of our triggers and routines.  There’s a lot of studies out there on habits, and a common consensus is that there is a “habit loop” that occurs beginning with a trigger.  From that simple trigger a series of events unfolds ending with a reward of some kind.  A habit loop can describe why we do most everything we do.  Like I mentioned above, a habit loop begins with a trigger (in the first paragraph my trigger was my alarm clock), which starts a routine (getting ready for work), and finishes with a reward (I made it to work).  The loop can be small or large and the trigger and reward can sometimes be hard to pinpoint.  However, everything we do regularly falls on this habit loop and is a product of our routines.  Let’s look at a couple other routines and break them down.  

Are you someone who needs to snack while watching TV?  Even if you just ate?  There’s a routine here that you’ve created.  The trigger is turning on Netflix, which causes you to get up and grab a snack, which finishes the loop as now you’re satisfied and eating and can continue binge watching a show.  The question in this scenario is, why is it that we grab food?  In most cases it isn’t because we’re hungry, but it’s part of our loop.  We have created a habit of needing food while watching TV.  The habit may have started because you actually were hungry while watching a show, but now it’s just something you do.  This habit can be changed though, and once we recognize it as a routine, we can adjust our pattern and set ourselves up for change.  

For example, next time you sit down to watch Netflix and halfway through the show your brain says “you need a snack,” ask yourself are you really hungry or just following a routine you’ve created.  What happens if this time instead of getting a snack you walk around the house for a minute and then come back and watch the show?  Or, what if you filled a glass of water instead of getting a snack?  If you’re not truly hungry, why do we grab food?  There are a number of reasons that we feel the need to get food when we’re not hungry ranging from boredom, being tired, needing a break from the TV, etc.  I’m leaving a lot out here, but you get the idea.

We have the ability to change our routines once we recognize the trigger and determine the reward.  The hard thing with habits is we can’t erase them, we can only redirect them.  The habit loop will always be there, which is why addicts have so much difficulty shaking their addictions. They must find new ways to satisfy the trigger and reward of getting drunk or high.  But, just like everything else, the habit will always be there, the routine is what we must focus our energy on.  If you think about are strongest habits, we’re probably all at some level addicts, we just choose healthier outlets.  Think about the person who runs every day, miles upon miles of running.  What happens if they don’t get their run?  The person who sits and plays video games for hours, works out daily, reads all the time.  These are all products of our routines that create and addiction, perhaps not an unhealthy level, but it’s possible to think that some people take their workout routines too far, or lose themselves in gaming for hours at a time.  Take a moment and think of a couple routines that you have in your day.  Try to identify a good and bad routine.  Then see if you can pinpoint the trigger and reward for each.  Do you know what starts your good/bad habits?  Do you know why you do the routine?  What reward comes after your routine is complete?

Here’s a couple examples of habits you may have to help you determine a few of your routines: biting your nails, snaking during work or watching tv, exercising, brushing your teeth, showering daily, stopping for fast food on the way home from work, the route you drive to work, when you read or write.  That’s just a small sample of the many routines we all live by.  There are constant triggers happening all around us that say, “hey it’s time to start x routine.”  Some habits are good and they save us time and energy or make us consistent at doing stuff.  Others create problems in our lives and are “guilty pleasures” or “bad habits.”  Make a list of all your habits and see which habits are running your life and routine.  How are you getting through each day?

The bottom line is this, we are all creatures of habit.  That’s what being human is.  We’re hard-wired to operate utilizing a variety of different routines.  I’m tired, go to bed, feel refreshed and rested.  I’m hungry, make food, I’m satisfied and full.  I’m lonely, call/text a friend, I’ve created human/social connection.  I’m bored, insert routine here, I’m no longer bored.  You get the picture.  Find what triggers your routines, then determine if the routine is good or bad, and if it is really giving us the reward we crave.  Remember you can’t delete a habit, but we can change the routine.  We can re-program ourselves to produce new routines based on old triggers.  We can also try to set up new triggers with different routines, but beware of this because if the old trigger happens we will still follow the old routine.  No matter how long you’ve been doing this new routine, the old trigger will still cause us to, for lack of a better word, relapse.  We are all creatures of habit, but we don’t have to be prisoners to our routines.