Forming New Habits

We all have some bad habits we'd like to break, and we've all experienced the frustration upon realizing how deeply ingrained some of our bad habits are. No matter how hard we try to break these habits, some of them seem particularly stubborn. What if we focused instead on forming new habits that might help to squeeze out the old ones? Instead of focusing our time and precious energy dwelling on the negative (our bad habits), what if we spent our time focusing on self-improvement by working to create new habits that will make us happier, healthier, wealthier, and wiser?

James Clear's 2018 book Atomic Habits provides fascinating insights on how we form habits. For instance, did you know that on average it takes 66 days for something to truly become a habit? No wonder it's sometimes so difficult to break a habit! Frankly, it may seem a bit daunting or discouraging to think it could take two months to form a new, healthy habit — two months of going to bed earlier each night and waking up earlier each morning, two months of jogging around the block each day, two months of keeping a written journal of goals.

Fortunately, James Clear's book offers advice on a trick called "habit stacking" which involves slowly creating a new habit by linking it ("stacking" it) to a habit we already have. As Clear writes, "By linking your new habits to a cycle that is already built into your brain, you make it more likely that you'll stick to the new behavior."

Here are several practical examples of how habit stacking might work: "After I take off my work shoes, I will immediately change into my workout clothes. After I sit down to dinner, I will say one thing I'm grateful for today. After I get into bed at night, I will give my partner a kiss." This method should, over time, create new habits. But it's essential to continue these habits — actually "do it" every day. As my Gen Z kids tell me, "You have to get in your reps" (meaning "repetitions of actions").

One final anecdote in Atomic Habits provides an astonishing example of why "getting in your reps" is so crucial to habit-forming. Years ago, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor of photography at the University of Florida, tried an experiment on the first day of class. He divided the class into two groups. Students sitting on the left side of the room would be in the "quantity" group, and their grade for the course would be determined simply by whether they turned in a final portfolio of 100 photos by the final week of class. The quality of the photos really didn't matter (as long as they tried); if they met the minimum requirement of turning in 100 photos, they could expect an excellent grade in the class. Students sitting on the right side of the room, however, were in the "quality" group; their final course grade would be determined by turning in one single photograph of exceptional quality during the final week of class.

Guess how this experiment turned out? The students in the "quantity" group turned in photos that were higher quality than the students in the "quality" group who turned in only one photo for their grade. As might be expected, the students in the "quality" group had spent weeks planning and thinking about where and when to take their one "amazing" photograph. Meanwhile, the "quantity" group of students took dozens and dozens of photos, learning from their mistakes about what works and what doesn't. They eventually formed habits that made them fine photographers — habits that were lacking in the other students who had failed to "get in their reps" by taking lots of photos.

Let's be sure to put in the time and effort to form healthy and rewarding habits. It will be worth it!