Day 39 The power of habit

The power of habit

There are around ninety per cent of our daily behaviors base on habits. It is similar to the lower hanging fruit principle in economics. People tend to perform the activities with the lowest opportunity cost first. Which is the activity they perform the most, so there are no extra costs for establishing a new strategy. These habits can either be good or bad, therefore if we want to change our life, the first step necessary is to transform bad habits into good ones.

It is crucial for us to maintain self-awareness. Sometimes people with bad habits do not recognize it, hence they stick to it and confusing about the poor performance. So how do we define a habit is whether good or bad? In my opinion, we have to compare our current actions with its next-best alternatives. If the expected outcome from the other strategy is significantly better, we should consider our current habit is at least in some level inefficient. The term ‘bad’ may not necessarily produce negative results, but we can always obtain better outcomes based on our capacity. 

After we defined the bad habits, self-control has become the determinant to change it. In order to enhance our self-control, we should make plans down to the details for daily activities. The plan will basically work as a guideline and a restriction when we make decisions Without it, we can easily be driven by our old habits. Recalling our goal is to change it and not following it at the same pattern. For every habit, there is a cue or trigger that makes us to perform in that way. Based on my understanding, it can be internal such as our physical/psychological needs, or external like other people’s influences. If we assume people have no self-control at all, they will act fully corresponding to the cue. The detailed planning will transfer the cue on a specific time into the willingness to accomplish the listed event on time. In other words, we can say the plan somehow ‘distracts’ ourselves from that inducement of bad habit.

The ultimate target for a habit is to acquire the reward. Thus we have to set our own incentives to lure ourselves away from the bad habits. We may separate the final goal into short-period achievements, thereby the benefits are outlined clearly. We will be able to realize the actual rewards for us, if we keep up with the plan within a week, a month and a year. This will greatly promote our propensity of implementing good habits. Moreover, we should review our past performance, since the frustration of unaccomplished items, plus, the sense of achievement for fulfilling the plan will generate additional incentives for us to carry out better results in the next period.

In conclusion, our habits have the unlimited power to adjust our behaviors. If we can precisely diagnose the incentives and rewards we were seeking, assisted with decent self-control, we are able to change any of our habits as we want.