Breaking Bad Habits – Part 1

Warren Buffett once said, “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” There is nothing more challenging than to try to change habits or to break a bad habit.

A study from Duke University said that 40-50% of our behavior on any given day is habitual. Have you ever bought a new house, and when you pulled out of work, you automatically turned your car and drove toward your old house out of habit? We are definitely products of our routines and rituals.

A habit is something we do without thinking, and a bad habit is a habit that is having a negative effect on our lives. Bad habits can include (but are not limited to):

• Procrastination
• Overeating
• Pornography
• Too much alcohol
• Losing your temper
• Too much social media
• Overspending
• Smoking
• Talking over people (not listening)
• Too much time spent playing video games
• Hooking up
• Not getting enough sleep
• Not exercising
• Self-condemnation

The list could go on and on, but the great news is that you can stop any bad habit! Aristotle stated, “What it lies in our power to do it lies in our power not to do.” It’s important to remember that whatever bad habit you are wanting to break, others have stopped doing that same bad habit—and so can you! How can you break bad habits?

1. Understand the habit loop.

In Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, he explains that all habits (good and bad) follow a pattern and consist of three parts: A cue, a routine (behavior), and a reward. Duhigg explains that a habit is a formula our brain automatically follows: When I see (the CUE), I will do (the ROUTINE) in order to get (the REWARD). You can find this habit loop and more detailed explanation on Charles Duhigg’s website here.

A personal example of a habit loop of mine:

Here is a practical, personal example of a habit loop that I experience every day.

Cue: Daily alarm sounds / Smell freshly-brewed coffee
Routine: Read my One-Year Bible
Reward: Closer relationship with God, start my day focused on Him

Once you understand this loop, you can then look at the bad habit(s) you would like to break. What is the cue that triggers the routine? What routine (behavior) does the cue trigger? Finally, what reward do I receive?

The most important part of the habit loop is to understand the reward. You must spend time determining what reward you are truly wanting out of the behavior. Once you’ve identified the reward you are craving, then you can work backwards to create a new routine that will accomplish the same reward, but using a different, better routine.

The chocolate chip cookie example:

Duhigg conveys a bad habit he had of going to the cafeteria to buy a chocolate chip cookie every afternoon between 3:00-4:00pm. In time, that bad habit had led him to gain eight pounds, and it also led to his wife to make make comments about the weight gain. How could he break the bad habit? (You can watch him tell the chocolate chip cooking story on YouTube by clicking here.)

Duhigg had to determine what reward was driving his routine of walking to the cafeteria and getting the cookie. He found that his biggest reward he was craving was socialization. Once he understood that, he could change the routine and accomplish the same goal. He found different ways to socialize, and it worked! He lost weight by changing his routine without sacrificing the reward.

2. Make it difficult.

The second way to break bad habits is to make it difficult to practice them. We’ve made it too easy on ourselves to practice the specific bad habits in our lives. If you overeat, for example, take a look at your pantry. Is it full of the wrong kinds of foods? Here are some examples of radical ways to make it more difficult to practice a bad habit:

Bad habit of overspending? Cut up those credit cards. Stop carrying them.

Bad habit of drinking too much? Get rid of the alcohol in your house.

Not getting enough sleep? Take the TV out of your bedroom.

Struggling with pornography? Get rid of your Smartphone and move to a “dumb” phone without the internet on it.

In Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus is talking about the struggle to be sexually pure. He had some hard words to say. He says, “So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

Jesus is not saying to literally pluck out your eye or cut off your hand. What He’s saying is to take radical steps to break the bad habit. Stop making it easy on yourself.

Recap

You can break any bad habit and move from where you are to where God wants you to be. First, you have to understand the habit loop, and then you have to make it difficult to do the specific bad habit.

In Part 2, we will cover the final two steps for you to have a breakthrough in your bad habits. To hear more content surrounding this topic, be sure to check out The Breakthrough Podcast.