The activity itself is not important-you are just experimenting with rewards to identify your craving. When you identify the reward and its routine, you can change the habit by establishing a different routine (for example, socializing with friends, exercising, or reading a book). Through experimentation, you can try using different rewards to isolate your craving. The next step is to understand the relationship between the reward and the routine (eating unhealthy food). In the case of eating poorly, the routine is easy to identify-you are eating the wrong foods. In his book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Charles Duhigg recommends four steps to change a habit. How then are you going to stop your habit of eating food that is unhealthy? Having a strong desire will help, but you also need to identify the trigger (or cue) for this behavior. All of these are positive steps in the right direction but you may find yourself continually fighting against the habit to eat junk food, despite all the reminders and goals you have set. You may have even placed reminders on the fridge to eat more healthy foods. If you have this habit, then you have probably set some goals to help you do better. Consider the habit of eating unhealthily. The following video illustrates how you can rewire the neural pathways in your brain to trigger the habits you want.Ĭhanging habits is sometimes not easy. Thus, habits are essentially the heavily used neural pathways in your brain that form your thought patterns and behaviors. Neural pathways are also strengthened by repeated use. If you have a growth mindset, when you do challenging tasks, your intelligence grows because you strengthen and form new neural pathways. Since habits are permanently stored in memory, when you change a habit what you are really doing is rewiring your brain to use the same triggers and rewards from the old habit to cue a new routine.

Habits are routines that you have learned so well that they are permanently stored in your memory waiting for the right trigger or cue to activate it. One is how well you remember something (how well it is learned). Your brain is creating habits all the time, so you may have developed a few negative habits along the way that could prevent you from achieving your goals.

If you repeat this pattern long enough, it will become a habit. Finally, create a trigger to prompt the action by setting an alarm on your phone or by placing your scriptures next to your bed.(For example, if you are trying to get in the habit of studying your scriptures, the routine could be reading the Book of Mormon every morning.) It could be an a more immediate goal, or it could be a goal that is accomplished over time (like scripture study). Identify a goal that will help you repeat a necessary behavior on a daily basis.The following list will help you create a habit: Understanding how habits are formed will give you the power to create or change your behavior. Good habits are essential for making life easier and more productive. Habits have the the power (both positive and negative) to determine success or failure.

Keystone habits synonym