Why Is It So Hard to Get Good Habits and So Easy to Get Bad Habits?

by Janus Moncur CPC – The Co-Creative Coach™

Bad habits – we all have them. Bad habits are those things we pick up easily and have a difficult time losing.  They are the exception to the old saying of “Easy Come, Easy Go.”  And good habits – we resolve to do good things and tend to mess up quickly and give up. How many of us keep all of our resolutions each year?  Any of them?  “But if I really want to change I should just call on my will power and be strong enough to just do it!”  Not necessarily.  So stop beating yourself up.

There are very simple reasons bad habits are so hard to escape and good habits are so difficult to establish…Instant Gratification and Habit Slips. Think about it. When we do those “bad” habits such as smoking or over-eating or not exercising, we receive some sort of instant gratification – a reward. When we try to establish a new “good” habit, we fight against our old comfortable habits and if we do manage to do our “good” chore, what do we get for it? A pat on the back? A ticker tape parade? Oh, yeah, self-satisfaction…right…Get the picture? We become so engrained in our comfortable ways that some things become almost automatic, so even though we intend to do better, we can easily fall back into old habits automatically through Habit Slips.

Getting back to instant gratification, it has been proven that the closer we come to our goal, the faster and harder we work to acheive it. So starting something new and far from the intended reward, is more difficult as far as our motivation is concerned. In fact, one study in a coffee shop used two groups as “lab rats.” One group was given a reward card with 10 punch spots that rewarded the participant with a free cup of coffee after the 10th spot was stamped. The other group recieved a card that had 12 stamp spots but with two of them pre-stamped. In essence, both groups needed to purchase 10 cups of coffee to receive their reward so you might think that the results would be similar. But the group that had the 12 spot stamp did get to their rewards first.  Interesting, isn’t it? So how can this information help us?

Here are three major tips for success;

1. Have a plan (sound familiar?) WITH shorter term achieveable goals and rewards.
2.  Remove old triggers to reduce habit slips – move your environment if possible – but if not, at least remove certain people, places or things that tend to trip your bad habit triggers.
3. Enlist help! Give yourself support – accountability – a cheerleader – a coach!

If you would like to further explore this subject or are interested in the scientific jargon, Learning and Memory: Basic Principles, Processes and Procedures, Fourth Edition, by W. Scott Terry is very helpful.

So the next time you feel frustrated or hopeless on your journey toward good, just remember the three tips and jump back in the saddle. And always remember there are folks out there to help you. The Lone Ranger did have Tonto!