The Simple Reason You Can’t Break That Habit
Ever felt stuck in a habit you can’t break?
Maybe you keep reaching for junk food even though you're trying to lose weight.
Or you check your phone every five minutes when you should be working.
You know it’s a bad habit, but for some reason, you keep doing it anyway.
What if I told you there’s a simple reason behind it—and an even simpler way to break free?
By the end of this email, you'll understand exactly why habits form and how to eliminate the ones that hold you back. This is a cheat code to reach your goals faster
let’s get into it
Do you know what a habit is?
It's something you do repeatedly (you’ve heard that before)
But that's too vague we need to dig deeper
A habit is simply the cycle of a cue, crave, response and a reward.
Every habit you have, good or bad, follows this process.
The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. Without realizing it, you're brain is constantly searching for hints of where rewards are located and the cue is the first indication that you are close to a reward.
The second step of the cycle is cravings, the cue indicates a potential reward, and now you are aware that you want the reward.
Let's say your walking by a bakery and suddenly smell new baked cookies, it smells delicious. And suddenly, you crave a cookie. The smell triggered your brain, that's the cue and then your brain remembers the delicous taste of the cookie, now you crave it more than ever.
The third step of the cycle is response, the most dangerous part.
This is where you do the actual habit. You crave the reward and now it's up to you if you follow through or not. Whether a response happens or not depends on how motivated you are to do it. If the action requires more physical and mental effort than you are willing, you won't do it. If the action is easy and you're actually capable of doing it, you will do it.
When you walked by the bakery, you got the cue and the craving, now it's time to respond. You're fully capable of doing it and now you're motivated. You head into the bakery, buy the cookie and eat it.
The last step of the cycle is the reward. The sole reason you got the cue and the craving in the first place. The reward is the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward, the craving is about wanting the reward, the response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they satisfy us and that’s what makes it dangerous. Rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering
After eating the cookie, you get the reward you've been craving. The sweet taste that melts in your mouth. The taste satisfies you, and now the cycle has ended. But you're brain takes notes, it remembers the habit that gave you that satisfaction and it will encourage you to do it sooner or later by a new cue, now the cycle has started again.
Cue, Craving, Respons and Reward are the sole reason you keep doing habits you don't want to do. It's also the reason you keep doing the habits you want to do.
The good thing is that we can take advantage of this cycle and eliminate the habit. You know there are four steps in the cycle, but if you remove any step, the habit won't occur.
If you remove the cue, the habit won't start.
If you didn’t walk by that bakery, you wouldn’t smell the cookies and you wouldn’t even think of buying it.
If you reduce the craving, you won’t have enough motivation to follow through.
If you just ate a big meal before walking past the bakery, the smell of cookies wouldn’t trigger the same craving. You might still notice it, but since you're already full, the temptation to buy and eat the cookie would be much weaker.
If you make the habit difficult, you won't do it.
If you left you're wallet at home, you couldn’t physically buy the cookie
If you make the reward unsatisfying, you will have no reason to do it again.
By doing this, you won't do the habits that hold you back. Maybe you want to lose weight but have a problem with impulse buying junk food. This method will fix that habit.
You just need to remove the steps of the cycle. It sounds simple, but it is a long going process. Don't dread if you fall back into the habit, just take mental notes on the cue, what made you get the craving. The crave, how motivated you were to get the reward. The response, how and why you followed through. The reward, if it satisfied you.
That way you're aware of the bad habit and why it's got a hold on you. Now you can find solutions to avoid doing it again.
If it were unclear, this cycle is a part of every habit, not just impulse eating. You can use this solution to fix every bad habit you have- whether it’s
smoking,
checking your phone to much,
skipping gym.
Now you know the reason behind your habits and how to fix them. It’s time to take action
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