In this blog, I like to share my own insights on how to build good habits and break bad ones. Why? Because none of us want to end up like the person in the photo below.
"If you're up everyday preparing a instant coffee with a miserable attitude on the way to work, you will be 37 times better at it by the end of each passing year."
What is a Habit?
Let's start with what 'habits' are not. Popular belief suggest that it just means something we do all the time repetitively. For example, how most of us associate the bathroom as a place to relieve oneself.
But according to psychological theory, a habit is only a habit if an reoccurring action is performed automatic without conscious thought, memory or willpower when one encounters a certain setting or situation.
In other words, waking up everyday miserable on the way to work from Monday to Friday could be automatically triggered without conscious thought because one associated preparing an instant coffee cup and/or travelling to work as a negative past response. Over time, it forms what we call a habit.
So, how did that person in that picture above end up there? Much like to how some office workers associate bathroom breaks as a means of escape.
How do we build good habits and break bad ones?
First, we must understand that the habit of completing assignments in the bathroom itself is a bad one. The habit was created because a mental link was formed between the context (going in the bathroom) and your response to that context (completing assignments). A link is strengthened each time you cue the behaviour of completing assignments when you go in the bathroom. Eventually, it happens automatically without much thought.
More relevant research shows that it takes up to 10 weeks on average to form a habit. Even so, it varies on each individual after the first action is performed.
career success = building systems to reach your goals
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits illustrates a habit as compound interest of self-improvement.
"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them." – James Clear
Another illustration he presented was being poor. If we continue to dwell on how poor we are without doing anything, we will go on poor without any results. However, if we decided to save $5 every month in the bank despite dwelling on how poor we are, eventually we will be less poor as our money multiplies.
In the same way, instead of simply creating goals for ourselves, we must create systems in place in order to succeed in those goals.
Back to my own illustration of the office worker in the bathroom. The simple solution in front of us seems to be plainly obvious, quit the job! Whatever the cost, the habit itself has not been eliminated. As the video indicates, we must create small adjustments that are:
Obvious
Attractive
Easy
Satisfying
"In order to break the bad habit, we must make the new cue obvious, make the craving rewarding, make the response easy, make the reward attractive and your on the way in making new and better habits."
Are you ready to Eliminate bad habits and form new habits for work life?
Brilliant Person Career Coaching can offer you coaching guidance to make this a reality. It's time to create new and better habits and systems to reach your career goals.
Yules Chan (BFA, CWS, CCS) is a CPC registered career development professional in Calgary who is motivated in providing holistic excellence by finding your hidden genius through the world of employment.
For more information go to Brilliant Person Career Coaching or call +1 (403) 891-2673 for a 15-minute complimentary consultation. We provide both in-person and online services.