It's a bit over one month since you may or may not have made the "I'm going to stick with it this time" New Years Resolution. Perhaps you resolved to eat more vegetables, run daily or knock off the sugar. It's undesrtandable that we make resolutions as we always are striving upgrade ourselves.  But, to be honest, the first of the year promises never stick.  

 

Before you begin flogging yourself for not keeping your resolutions, rest assured that straying from your goals is not your fault. It's lies in your physiology. Phew!!  In his book, the Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg, explores the triggers that reinforce our behaviors and how to strengthen or overcome them.  Check out the video above.  

Making a habit is not much more complicated than training a dog. It's as simple as a 3 step process: 1. The Cue (the trigger for the behavior); 2. The Routine (the behavior itself); and 3.The Reward (gives the incentive to latch on to the behavior). The cues and rewards and critical.  It's reported that 40 to 45 percent of what we do each day is habit or an automatic behavior all having cues or rewards.  It's the reward that causes the habit to become automatic.  

 

So, let's say you want to start running. Start with a cue. It can be just putting on your running shoes and taking them off, that's it.  No running, just the shoes.  Duhigg calls this an "implementation intention".  It's the first step in starting a routine. Later, put on your running clothes to just walk around the block. Chances are that once you're in your running clothes and out on the street, you'll decide to continue.  Keep the shoes by your bed and they will "cue" you to run.  

 

Now the reward. According to Duhigg the reward is the most important part.  That's why we do a behavior--to get the reward. Using the running analogy, think of a treat, like a piece of organic, fair trade chocolate, a (short) warm shower or your favorite smoothie made with dollop of cashew butter and half a banana. When you finish your run, treat yourself. The reward needs to be done right away in order to link the action with the reward, like you're tricking the brain into thinking the running and chocolate are related. Win-win!

 

In order to create new habits or change old ones, figure out the cue and reward.  As Duhigg illustrates in the video, you can play around with both to see what combination of the cue and reward elicit the desired behavior.  So, it's not about willpower. It's about understanding how the brain has wired together your behaviors with the rewards.  

 

Like Duhigg during his coffee break (see video), I get a secondary gain by the social component of going to a yoga class. My reward, besides the practice itself, is seeing my friends and hopefully sharing a cup of coffee or a beer after class. There's my reward. 

Once you get the hang of noticing cues, actions and rewards, you can trick your brain into starting a good habit or saying bye-bye to an old one.