A habit is behaviour that through repetition becomes automatic or habitual. We all have them, some are good and some are bad, only you can decide if it is a habit that you no longer wish to have. This may be because it is affecting your health, such as smoking, drinking and overeating, or do you want to feel better about yourself, stop biting your nails, or stop procrastinating and putting things off?
A habit is behaviour that through repetition becomes automatic or habitual. We all have them, some are good and some are bad, only you can decide if it is a habit that you no longer wish to have. This may be because it is affecting your health, such as smoking, drinking and overeating, or do you want to feel better about yourself, stop biting your nails, or stop procrastinating and putting things off?
There are three parts to a habit – the cue, the behaviour and the reward. Habits are a way for your brain to make you more efficient, how long would it take you to brush your teeth if you had to think ‘move hand towards brush, open fingers, close fingers around brush, move other hand towards toothpaste, open fingers, close around toothpaste ………. etc’, so your brain collects all the information into one chunk and it becomes automatic, you don’t even need to think about it. One of the first things you need to do is to find a replacement behaviour that gives you the reward but without the negative consequences.