HABITS AND HUMANS by SRI GOPALA SUBRAMANIAN (RYLA 41.0)

Introduction

Every human being’s life is the outcome of their habits.  At some point of the lifetime everyone will have a question in their mind, why good habits are tough to build but not the bad ones. Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons, first we try to change the wrong things, later we try to change our habits in wrong way.

What are habits?

A habit is an act done on a regular basis almost automatically. Brushing teeth during the morning, enjoying coffee or going for a run, all these over the years get embedded in the brain and it starts doing them almost effortlessly.

Habits Create Freedom

People think habits restrict them and it removes vibrancy and spontaneity in their life, but it’s quite opposite habits create Freedom. Without good financial habits, you will always be struggling financially.

Without learning habits, you will always be behind the learning curve. Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want to do in your future.

The Art of How Habits Works

The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps:

• Cue

• Craving

• Response

• Reward

The Cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior that predicts a reward. Cravings are the second step; they are the motivational force behind every habit. Without cravings we have no reason to act, you do not want to watch cinema, you want to be entertained. Craving differs from person to person, for a smoker who wants to stop smoking, seeing other people smoking could trigger them but for a non-smoker it doesn’t matter.

Response is the third step. The response is the actual habit you perform through action. Finally, response delivers reward. Rewards are the end goal of every habit. Every habit we had developed since our childhood would be based on rewards.

Creating and Breaking Habits

To create a good habit:

Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying

To break a bad habit, invert these laws. Environment plays a major role in shaping your habits. If your friends circle regularly goes to gym, there are high chances for you to join gym sooner or later. If your friends circle consists of smokers, you joining them would have a high chance. We humans are social animals, we all like to be included in a group rather than being left alone, that’s why environment matters.

We imitate the habits of three groups:

• The close

• The many

• The powerful

Conclusion:

Our habits build us. It is important to build a routine for everyday life to make it more productive and efficient, there is no surprise that every successful person has their individual routine to start the day. We cannot change our lifestyle within a day or two but we can have a great progress by changing little things even if it is by 1%. Remember these rules forever, make it obvious, make it easy, make it attractive, make it satisfying.