Hi Everyone, 

 

I decided since my major focus these days is my new business and meetings that I would make this newsletter a Healthy & Happy newsletter, rather than my old coaching moniker, Healthy Thoughts/Healthy Actions. That name and website will soon be a thing of the past, as I move fully into my new company. Hence not only am I changing the name, but creating a consistent look with my website. I hope these newsletters will become easier to read and a little more stylish.

This issue I want to write about habits. Yesterday I listened to a radio interview with an author named Charles Duhigg, who wrote a book called The Power of Habits. The things he said were so interesting that I just ordered it, and will write more about it below.

He explained that a habit has two parts: the trigger and the reward. So as we do something over and over again we are stimulated by something which begins the act, because there is a reward at the other end.

He used an example of his habit of getting up from his desk at about 3:30 each day to go upstairs to the cafeteria to get a chocolate chip cookie. He decided he needed to lose some weight and wanted to break this habit.  So he had to first identify the trigger, which seemed to be this need for a 3:30 break. But the uncovering the reward was actually more elusive. So we're all thinking its the cookie, right? I mean what better reward could there be? Well he experimented with getting a candy bar one day, an apple another day and a glass of water another day. It did not seem to matter. They all satisfied his needs somehow. So it was not the cookie.

But every time he would go up to get his cookie his colleagues were up there and they all stood around and chatted for awhile. He began to realize that the reward was the social interaction! So he decided to arrange for social time in some other way and broke this daily habit.

Now how does this apply to you? Well I am betting all of us have habits we'd love to break. And you're probably saying to yourself as you're reading this, "well for me the reward would be the cookie...", right? But what if it wasn't? What if the reward was to re-energize because you were tired, or because you were bored and needed stimulation or...? Fill in the blank...You may not even be aware of what the reward is that you are seeking.

So the next time you find yourself doing the same unwanted behavior over and over identify the trigger and then the REAL reward. Go deep inside to figure out what you really want! And I will bet there is a much better way of getting that than stuffing cookies in your mouth.