Break the Habit: Get 40% of your life back!

“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.” - John Dryden, English poet

40% of your life, happens on auto-pilot. Were you aware of this? Probably not, let me explain why.

MIT researchers, during the 1990's, suspected that the basal ganglia, a lump of tissue deep inside our brain, had something to do with habits. They decided to experiment, implanting dozens of sensors within the head of rats, recording their brain activity.

Each rat would then be placed in one end of a T-shaped maze, behind a small gate that would open after a loud click sound. On the other end, there was chocolate.

During the first rounds, the rat would take it's time exploring, sniffing and scratching around, until eventually, finding the prize. Its brain, and in particular its basal ganglia, worked intensively, their brain had to work at full power, processing all the new information.

As repetitions increased, the rat would zip through the maze faster and faster, and its brain activity would decrease. After the first days, brain activity related with scratch or smell would cease. After a week, even memory would stop showing signs of work: the rat started thinking less and less, only peaking after hearing the click and when finding the chocolate.

Have you ever commuted to or back from work and upon arriving at the destination, asked yourself:

Why do we create habits?

"The human  brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the  most complicated object in the known  universe." - Michio Kaku

When my 2 year old daughter encounters something different like a new toy, a new place, or new people, she stops, take her time, and try to process as much information she can.

Our brain is the most effective, self-optimizing machine known to man.

Imagine if brushing our teeth required the same processing power like the first time? Or if driving was as complex like it was in the beginning? Would you continue doing it?

This process, known as "chunking", is our brain taking a sequence of actions and transforming into an automatic behavior. This is the root of habits.

The good and bad side of habits...

• Habits are a gift, they remove the mental effort for repeated tasks, so we may devote "brain time" to others, like inventing the spear, fire, airplanes, internet, the next start-up unicorn.
• Habits are a curse, they "shut-down" parts of the brain, making us ignore important signals, like a predator hidden in the bushes, or that you've left the bathroom with your fly open.
• Habits are sometimes a double-edged sword, providing an immediate reward, but also damaging our objectives on the long run, like eating those crisp donuts, smoking just that extra cigarette, or raising your voice when your daughter writes on the wall.

What do I want with all this?

I'm tired to live by the rules of my habits. Some of them make me proud, but most of them, are not worthy of praise. Nevertheless, I've invested a lot of time and effort trying to change, start or stop habits, with little to no success.

Recently, I've come to realized that what is required to an effective, efficient and sustainable habit change, are the following five steps:

1. Make them visible: Habits are unconscious and automated responses. Awareness is the first step of any change.
2. Decompose them: Habits are not just the behavior itself. Break them down and know the why, the what, the how, the reward, the effect.
3. Start small: Big action does not equal big success. BIG-BANG releases tend to fail, go for incremental and evolutionary design/improvement.
4. Don't fight alone: Motivation only does not equals success. Have a system supporting you.
5. Measure the heck out of them: Do you wanna win in Life, or jut play it? Measure what matters, keep track of your progress, and set backs.

In the next 5 articles, I will detail those steps, which I've been using on myself and others with much better results.

TL;DR

40% of our life, we are rats in a T-shaped maze, reacting to things that make us "click", that we hope will leads us to "chocolate". Knowing how and why habits are formed give us insights on how to create or break them.

With my professional experience with Psychology, Lean/Agile, NLP, and Coaching techniques, I devised a 5 step system for sustainable Habit Change.

If there is only a will, there is a hard way. If there is a will and a system supporting us, the way becomes easier! Stay tuned for the next 5 parts!

Thanks to Rui Pedro Saraiva, Filipe Coimbra, Eloi Guterres, and Miguel Saraiva Samaio for the encouragement.

References

My favourite quote of all time is a misattribution

40% of Your Life Is on Autopilot

The Power of Habit