In my last post, 1% Better Every Day, I went into detail on how to create good, lasting habits based on the evidence and strategies presented by James Clear in “Atomic Habits”. This post is all about breaking the bad habits we have developed over the years and making room for new, better habits. Many of the principles are the same, but used in reverse.
Inversion of the Four Laws of Behavior Change
1. Make It Invisible
Environment Design: To form good habits we created an environment that made it easy for us to follow through. For example, leaving our workout clothes in plain view ready to go for when we got home. To break a bad habit, we need to do the inverse. Design the environment so there are little to no cues to follow through with the bad habit. If you are trying to quit smoking, stop carrying them around with you. If you want to stop eating junk food, start buying only healthy foods.
2. Make It Unattractive
Change Your Identity: When creating good habits we focused on the person we wanted to become rather than the outcome. If your goal is to run a marathon, your identity should be a runner. When breaking a bad habit, we should do the same. Rather than focusing on the goal, we change who we are. Let’s say you are trying to quit smoking. When someone asks if you want a cigarettes, rather than saying, “I can’t I am trying to quit”, say, “I am not a smoker”. By reframing our response this way, we reinforce the change we want, rather than trying to refuse temptation.
3. Make It Difficult
Increase Friction: By increasing the difficulty, we move the habit from the unconscious brain to the conscious brain. By doing this we are more likely to stop our bad habit. If you wanted to watch less TV, this could be unplugging the TV between uses, or taking it a step farther and putting the TV in a closet after each use.
(Read more about the way the conscious brain can help with creating and breaking habits here: Evolution is Failing)
4. Make It Unsatisfying
Add Consequences: Introduce immediate negative consequences for partaking in a bad habit. An example of a consequence could be setting up a system that donates to the opposite political party of who you typically vote for every time you engage in a bad habit. Another consequence can be a social one. Share your goals with other people (friends, family, online), if you don’t follow through with them, you will have to inform everyone you let them down.
Additional Strategies
- Habit Replacement: Once you break a bad habit, you now need to fill that space with a good one. It is often easier to replace habits with something similar. For example, if you have a bad habit of watching TV after work, a corresponding good habit could be reading a book. Both provide entertainment and can be enjoyed while relaxing.
- Habit Tracking: Just like with starting good habits, habit tracking brings awareness and accountability to the forefront of your mind. By keeping a habit tracker you can see if you are making progress and it will trigger the conscious mind to notice the bad habit.
- Implementation Intentions: Create a specific plan for how you will avoid the bad habit and replace it with a good one. For example, when you feel the urge to smoke, instead of smoking you will take five deep breaths.
Conclusion
Breaking bad habits involves making the undesirable behavior invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying. By implementing these strategies, you can disrupt the habit loop and replace bad habits with healthier, more productive behaviors.
