Imagine about today. You wake up in the morning, and what do you do? What do you do from the morning until you read this post? Can you recall each step one by one? I can’t. I just know briefly about what I did until I get here to write this post. There is something in life that you do without you realize it and you do it consistently. I feel grateful because there are a lot of things that I do that I don’t need to think about it. it just happen. I’m sure you too have similar things. It might be different from how I do it, but we all have it. Have you get a guess what I’m talking about? I’m sure you know, It is habit. l learn about habit recently from Power of habit by Charles Duhigg. It is a gripping book that, just like the title says, describing about habit and how it is so powerful that it form us. The main theme is about how habit is formed in the beginning and afterwards you do that automatically.

Most of habits are done because we do that over and over again. The way you walk, wear your clothes, driving, typing, and many more. A lot of things has become a norm. I’m sure when you do that, you’re not thinking step by step like first second and so on, but you do it unconsciously. Habit itself is not bad. but some of bad habit can be formed if you’re not careful. Every habit is triggered by something or someone and it seems hard to change because you feel that something is missing when you’ haven’t done that. For my experience, I have a habit of snacking. What I noticed is that every time I feel bored and for some reason it usually in the afternoon, I usually look for some snacks. If there’s a snack, I’ll grab it. I feel bad afterwards because I feel that I took too much snack that it will make my sugar level raise up and I’m afraid that I’ll be getting diabetes sooner or later. Is there any habit you want to remove? or is there something that you want to improve? Here are 4 steps to change your habit

1. Realize that you have a habit.
No matter good or bad, you made decision to do it in autopilot. By doing it many times, it will make whatever the activity is to become a habit. Habit is a good thing when you develop a good habit, but like good habit and bad habit, both can be change. So, by realizing that you have a habit will make you think which habit you want to keep and improve and which one you want to remove. Try to list down some habit that you want to enhance or eliminate. You might realize about it but never thought about it. When you never thought about it, it will bring yourself to the habit you don’t want.

2. Find the reason why and what triggered your habit
Duhigg mentioned that every habit triggered by a reason. it could be something (i.e. computer, phone), someone (your spouse, collleagues, friends), time frame (morning, afternoon, 4pm), location (in bedroom, office, in front of food court), or anything else that make you do or crave for something automatically. I feel that this activity is quite hard, because you need to be conscious in what you do. But believe it, when you become conscious, you can do it just for a short while and then you can improve your habit. This days, I try to have a healthy lifestyle of sleeping and rise early. I know that at night time, I have a tendency to watch one more youtube video, or read one more page. I notice that I just feel too excited and just don’t feel to sleep. I notice that the reason was because in the past few days, there’s too much things that I need to finish and I feel that I deserve to do something that I like to do, like watching TV. In this step, list out some habit that you do often. List out in detail about how do you feel, where you are, is there somebody triggering you, etc. basically find one or some reasons why you do what you do. It doesn’t mean that you need to do that for everything. But try it for a week. you might be surprised by what you find.

3. Take responsibility with what you can do
I know that it is easier to blame on other things or somebody else of your bad habit. Keep this in mind, people or something can tell you to do something, but you have control of yourself to choose to do or not to do. I don’t think somebody else is threatening you to do something that you don’t want. Most probably, you are still in control. For some things it is easier to be said than done. I know that it is easier to say because of that person or the advertisement, or something else that you do this. But, do you and I really want to change our habit? It is easier to change our habit by accepting the responsibility. By admitting our part in the habit, it help us to think creatively to overcome the habit.

4. Make a change in your routine
Knowing is one thing, action is another. It doesn’t matter what you know until you do based on what you know. The next step is to change your routine. There are 3 components of a habit: cue (or trigger), activity, and reward. Now that you know why you do that and hopefully know what do you want to feel at the end. You can change the routine or action. In order to change a habit, it is recommended to keep the cue and the reward, but change the activity. After trying it, I can see that it is easier to achieve better habit by changing the activity. Is there a habit that you want to replace? This is a good start. Nowadays, when I want to sleep, I play instrumental music. It calms me down and trigger the cue to make me relax. I’m changing my activity from watching Youtube that make me relax and excited, to listening to music that make me relax and calm. Then I can sleep faster. and by doing that, I can have more consistency to wake up earlier in the morning. This step can apply in any habit that you want to change. I know a friend that love snacking. Instead of eating chips, now he’s eating baby carrot. He able to maintain his health by doing that. You might think that it won’t work for you. Try it for 3 weeks, and see the impact.

The Power of Habit has a lot more things that you can learn. These are some things that I learn about habits. It has let me to learn more on habit and how to change my bad habit. I’m sure that it is a lifetime battle within us. It is easier to return to the bad habit. So while you still remember, please do it immediately. Don’t wait until you feel the time is right, because it will never right. Start to change your habit now. It could be better a few years back, but the next best time is now.

Question: What other step that you say will help more to change our bad habit? Is there any sharing you have to empower or encouragement that you need?

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. – Chinese proverb

Phi 4:13 I can do everything through Him (God) who gives me strength.