How are habits formed?
I’ve already spoken a bit about how habits form via repetitive behavior patterns but let’s dive a little deeper into the biology of habit formation. I will try to keep it as simple as possible. It is scientifically proven that your brain is shaped by your life experiences. Scientists call this neuroplasticity.
When you do these repeated behaviors, your brain starts to form connections between brain cells called neural pathways, think of them initially as dirt roads. Depending on how long the behaviors are repeated, if you do something for long enough these pathways become more hard wired, like a paved road instead of a dirt road. Once that happens, signals between these nerve cells can fire off more efficiently and more automatically. When this happens, it becomes harder to correct a habit that you would like to change.
How to change a bad habit to a good habit
So, check this out, on a simple level, to change a bad habit, you have to stop doing the bad habit. That pathway (AKA “road”) stops being used and crumbles up and deteriorates. Because the universe doesn’t like to operate in a vacuum (yeah, I had to throw some spiritual stuff in the mix but it’s also physics so stick with me), the easiest way to create a new habit though, is not just by stopping the bad habit, it’s replacing it with a good habit. Otherwise, your nature will be more resistant to changing the bad habit to avoid a void where the old habit used to be.
Creating new habits and substituting them for the bad habit causes two things to happen at the same time and prevents the void. You end up building new neural pathways from the repetition of the new habit (which will make it easier the longer you do it), and the old habit pathways deteriorate until they are less active or totally inactive.
Most people only look at changing bad habits as a behavioral change, but the reason why it may be hard to change a bad habit into a a good one is because it’s also biological, you have to understand how long this process will take. While this transition is happening, you will need to rely on your self discipline, but the cool thing is that now that you know this, you understand why you may have failed in the past but you know that you just need to get over the hump and this can be smooth sailing. So let’s talk about how to get over the hump. Also, make sure you check out this free guide that I have to help you with discipline during this period of change.
