“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
How many times have you hit the snooze or said, “Ugh I’ll do that tomorrow”, or I’ll start dieting or eating better when this holiday passes or after this weekend of fun is over?
Raise your hand. 
I know I have and with some things I still do. Granted I have 3 small children and that snooze button is needed sometimes. 
What is the habit loop and how can I benefit from knowing this information? + A quick guide to create better habits.
If you’re wanting to change bad habits or create new positive habits then you’re in the right place.
The habit loop is a good thing and a bad thing. It all depends on how you’re looking at it.
So if you’re wanting to change a habit or create a new positive habit then this is going to shed some light on how to do that.
This is the year of taking back control, at least in your own life.
You can’t expect to change the world without changing your own life first right!?
Like Dr. Jordan Peterson says, and I’m going off memory so this isn’t going to be word for word, but he says clean your room. If your own home isn’t in order then don’t expect your outer world to be in order.
This is so true.
I’ve been that person who “tried” to change everyone else around me and let everyone know what was wrong with them instead of taking self inventory and realizing that it’s on me to change the things within me and get my own self in order.
If I kept my same habits and behaviors I would be fighting an unwinnable battle with everyone else for the rest of my life.
WHY would I KNOWINGLY want to do that?
If you’re ready to make real change it starts with YOU.
This isn’t some fluff statement, it’s true.
I reversed my bad habits and behaviors from a 20 year addiction to having my mindset my best asset. If I can do that then you can change whatever you want that isn’t serving you anymore.
I’m rambling and I’m sure you’re like OMG get to it already.
I know I would be 🤣
Download Your FREE PDF on how to CONSCIOUSLY CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT
What is the habit loop?
There are 3 parts to the habit loop and they are:
THE CUE: or TRIGGER Which is the event, emotion, time, place, space, or sense that occurs to create the
THE HABIT: the thing that you will do each time the cue happens
THE ROUTINE: which is what happens when the brain is rewarded from the habit.
Let me explain further.
If you want to change a habit you will need to start first by being aware of the habit and creating a mental note every time you go for the habit.
So when I smoked cigarettes I would pay attention to the way I felt anytime I reached for the smoke, what I was thinking and what I was doing.
This is called awareness training.
So instead of trying to control my smoking habit I changed the behavior and thought process around the habit.
You change the routine or the behavior attached to the routine, not the cue or the habit.
Once you change the behavior the rest will follow.
So, when I was reaching for a cigarette I realized I was mostly bored and my hands were used to having something in them.
I had to do one of a few things or all of them whichever suits you needs. So you can do a pattern or thought disruption, count backwards, do something more productive or you can ask yourself why do you want this, get to the route of why you want to smoke, why you want to eat bad food, why you want to overreact, and so on.
For many of my habits and behaviors it came down to this…
…“it was normal in my family” so that normalcy became my bad habit and bad behavior.
I don’t know how long or how many years I said, “why do I even smoke, I hate it, my breath stinks and I can’t breathe.”
But because I trained my brain and body and created cues to make me smoke even more it seemed like it was hard to give up.
But it actually isn’t. The idea of you giving up something is the hard part.
How will you deal with stress and anxiety if you don’t smoke? (Or insert your bad habit)
We change the story.
Depending on what you want to change it will go deeper than the surface level and you will need to journal about and see if there are any other behaviors you will have to change.
For example: my smoking was also a stress relief thing. I had a bad day, argued with someone, felt anxious, I would smoke.
I had to change my behaviors around stress, which means I had to take back control of my emotions.
I had to look at how I handled anxiety. I had to change the story of my life and how I viewed how I handled EVERYTHING.
It sounds like I had to do a lot of changing for one habit but it was all mental and behavioral.
Everything that you want stands between the way you think of them and how you behave on a regular basis.
We have to stop trying to control outside situations because we can’t.
We don’t even get to decide which feelings arise on a day to day basis. But we do get to decide how we handle those feelings.
We get to say, “ok this person said this about me or my life, I can choose to get mad or I can shrug it off as an invalid opinion of someone who doesn’t matter.”
TAKE BACK CONTROL
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.
The only cure for fear is action.
Disrupt the thought patterns that are creating the feeling of fear.
When you disrupt the thoughts patterns and JUST DO IT your mind will be in control instead of your body.
The body handles fear in two ways, to freeze or move.
Which will you choose?
Move towards freedom or stay in prison?
I can help you with that. Schedule your FREE call and let’s talk if you’re ready to get out of your one way and TAKE BACK CONTROL.
https://tuesdayrobbins.com/Discovery/