The new Goop newsletter showed up today and the subject was How to Break a Habit… or Start a New One . A timely subject as we have been changing our routines and setting about following a different path lately.
Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit
There’s a portion in the Q&A with Jeremy Dean, the author of the book Making Habits, Breaking Habits, that offers up some great strategies for creating new habits and getting rid of old ones.
“When you’re trying to change a habit, you’re going to have this fight, this kind of willpower battle, between the new habit and the old habit. After a period of repetition, though, the new response will take over and you won’t need the willpower anymore. What you’re looking for is for that new response to be automatic, so you don’t have to have that tussle with your willpower.”
The fasting at our house was a fight of epic proportions. Sometimes you just have to go cold turkey, pare down your food intake to a few simple components and let your body go through the struggle of giving up old fail safes and bad habits. It’s tough, but eventually as the author says, the new response will take over and you won’t have to tussle with your willpower.
Another handy strategy is having a Pre-commitment in place. Jeremy Dean suggests thinking ahead to times when you’re going to be tempted to follow your old habits, and create a plan for committing yourself in advance to your new habit. This is one time where it is OK to rehearse calamity! When you’re feeling strong, you make a decision so that when you’re feeling weaker and more susceptible later, the temptation will be gone. If you’re trying to cut down on tv, put the remote out in your glovebox. It’s not a forever strategy but until the new habit has been created it’s a great way to not loose that hard fought territory.
You’d be amazed how much weaving cuts down on the snacking, kinda hard to justify orange tainted cheezie fingers all over those beautiful threads, ha.
so say you’ve not got a loom to distract you and you still want top make some small changes to your own habits…
Check out Tiny Habits w/ BJ Fogg. You pick 3 tiny habits you want to start and for the next 5 days you will get a daily email and reminder from this Standford PHD. It’s super easy to follow along, and the joining the online program is free.
Yup, emailing you out of the good of his heart…This TED Talks alumni just wants to show you how easy it can be to make a change become habit.
It’s a very interesting approach to making small and realistic changes. Registration starts every Friday! Let’s do it!
renovationslaves 