In the first blog, we showed you how to make the cues of your habit cycle work in your favour. In this blog, we’re going to help you master the next stage of your habit cycle – making your healthy habit more attractive.
Now we’re no stranger to the long list of ill effects from our bad habits. But what is it about bad habits that still keeps us coming back to them?
That’s because they are designed to be addictive!
Why Most Bad Habits Are So Hard to Break
Maybe this knowledge about breaking and building habits is new to you. But major industries have known the secret of this 4-stage habit cycle for decades? And they know exactly how to use it against you. For instance, have you ever found yourself doing this? Someone offers you a bag of your favourite potato chips. You think you’re just going to have a few of them. 10 mins later, the bag is empty, you’re covered in crumbs, and you’re wondering how you ended up finishing the whole thing? How did that happen?
Behind every bag of your favourite potato chips, there is years of experimenting with the perfect sugar, salt and fat content to reach a certain “bliss point.” That’s the secret behind why you can’t just eat one. That’s why you end up binge-eating them. The companies that make such products make them as pleasure-packed as possible. They design their products to give you concentrated doses of dopamine as instant rewards. And every habit is a dopamine-driven cycle.
When your brain sees the opportunity for pleasure without putting any effort to earn it, it loves coming back for more. That’s what makes your bad habits attractive.
Of course, your brain also recognizes the attractiveness of the good habits you’re trying to build. Even though you know their benefits will be more long-lasting, these are long-term rewards. Ignoring shortcuts to pleasure on the other hand, takes a lot of willpower. So it’s much easier to fall back to the comfort zone by your bad habits.
But don’t worry! This is not another motivational blog to lecture you about jumping out of your comfort zone. We’re going to show you 3 ways to make building healthy habits more rewarding and attractive – both in the short-term & long-term.
Focus On the Benefits of Building Your Healthy Habit
But the key to drop your bad habits is not by giving attention to what you want to avoid, but by focusing on the benefits of not doing it. That’s one way of getting a dopamine boost too. Why? Because our brain gets a dopamine boost not just when we get the reward, but also when we’re anticipating the reward. Remember, it’s the anticipation of the reward that pushes you into action, not the act of getting the reward.
Although bad habits guarantee short-term rewards that crumble away, good habits promise long-term rewards that will stay with you. That’s what you need to shift your attention to.
So instead of just saying “I have to quit smoking”, say “I can double my lung capacity so I can go for more of my favourite mountain treks.”
Instead of saying “I have to give up tea”, say “I can have fresh juices and have more energy throughout the day”.
Just shift your attention from the consequences of not following your healthy habit to the anticipation of its reward. In fact, it’s often your anxiety and frustration that become cues for indulging in bad habits like smoking, binge-watching or binge-eating.
If you are focusing on the negative consequences of failing to follow your new habit, you’re just building up more anxiety and frustration. Ultimately, these emotions become the cues that end up pushing you back into your bad habits.
Learn to Be Friends With Your Temptations
Too impatient to wait for the long-term rewards of your healthy habit? Then give into temptation. Believe it or not, there is a positive way to use your temptations to build new habits. Instead of waiting 3 months to get that long-term reward out of your habit, how about making every effort you put into building it just as rewarding? How do you do this?
Just follow this simple formula – I will do [activity you already enjoy doing] only when I [do an action to build my new habit].
Basically, you pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. It’s a way to reward every effort, every step of the healthy habit building process. It’s marrying discipline with fun. To be honest, how can we expect you to commit to a lifestyle if you can’t make it fun?
Wet pack, enema, sunbathing, pranayama, Satvic food, fasting…it doesn’t have to be a checklist you have to force yourself to cross off every day. Luckily, when you follow the Satvic lifestyle, you have enough freedom and flexibility to make it as fun as you want.
You can listen to your favourite podcast, but only when you’re sunbathing. You’ll be lighting up with fresh ideas while bathing in the light of the sun.
If you love eating at a restaurant near your office, only visit it once you complete making your monthly review presentation.
If you could watch your favourite TV show only while doing your wet pack, you wouldn’t mind doing it everyday. And you’ll look forward to it because it will be even more relaxing. Or how about making every evening a 15-min family spa experience? You can all do the wet pack together and exchange relaxing head, neck and shoulder massages.
Want to jog for an hour every day? After every 10 mins, take a one minute break to rest and share the latest funny memes with your friends on your phone.
The key is to shift our attitude to “come for the outcome, stay for the activity.” If you can’t find a reason to come back to the activity (where you’ll spend 99.9% of your time), you’ll keep looking for a way out before you get the long-term reward.
Join a Group That Supports Your Healthy Habit
You may have heard this quote before and wondered if it really applies to you. But have you heard this quote by James Clear?
“Illness is not just something you catch. It’s something you can imitate as well.”
Doesn’t make much sense when you hear it, right? But did you know that if your friend becomes overweight, there’s a 57% chance you may become overweight too? Yes, even if you both live thousands of miles apart! That’s exactly what a recent study proved.
How is it possible? It’s always easier to share time with someone who connects with your lifestyle choices. But are good habits as contagious as bad habits? Absolutely! You just have to find the right community to fit into.
This brings us to one of the deepest desires that each of us share – a sense of belonging. Whether it’s your friends, family, or work colleagues, each group has their own preferences and expectations. The kind of food you love, the music you enjoy, what you prefer to spend money on, what kind of person you should marry, most of these “individual personality traits” are not so individual at all. They are simply social norms that we get used to fitting in with, which allow us to feel like we belong to our group.
Here’s a question – ever got this look from your friends and family when you told them exactly what you’re doing to follow the Satvic lifestyle? If yes, you’re not alone. You’re just picking up a new habit that the group doesn’t find attractive.
It doesn’t mean you have to convince them to get their approval, respect, or praise. Don’t waste your willpower trying to convert them to your lifestyle either if they are not interested. Respect where they are on their journey and focus on where you are on your journey.
Try to find a group where your desired behaviour is the norm. When you see more people around you finding the same habits rewarding, repeating the actions for building them daily, you begin to feel that these habits are easily within your reach.
Want to keep up your perfect morning routine after finishing the 5 AM Challenge, start a WhatsApp group with a few community members from the Facebook group. You can create a morning group check-in ritual. As soon as each member wakes up, they have to notify they’re awake on the group. It’s a simple way to motivate each other to wake up.
If you’re hungry for more after the 21-day Yoga Challenge, make another group with your batchmates and host a morning Zoom meeting doing yoga watching the guided asana videos.
If you’re interested in hanging out with people who appreciate Satvic food, organize a pot-luck lunch once a month and invite some community members over.
A community that supports healthy habit building is rewarding in not just one, but two ways:
- To learn from people who are a few steps ahead of you on the path.
- To guide people who are trying to catch up with where you are on the path.
Remember, it is the culture you’re a part of that will cultivate the habits that define you. So always be conscious of the company you keep.
