up:: Defining a habit tags::#habit

Changing a habit is really about replacing a routine §

Duhigg’s book, while full of the requisite filler of long pop-science stories, breaks ground on providing a simple habit formation process.¹

Habits are incredibly resilient: in some cases, people with extensive brain damage who could not even remember where they lived could still adhere to their old habits and pick up new ones. This is because learning and maintaining habits happens in the basal ganglia, a part of your brain that can function normally even if the rest of your brain is damaged.

Unfortunately, this resilience means that even if you kick a bad habit, like smoking, you will always be at risk of relapsing.

Habits are simple cue-routine-reward loops that save effort and therefore endure. They are Natural Selection in action. See: Habit formation provides an evolutionary advantage.

Habits stick because they create craving.

• golden rule of changing any habit: don’t resist craving, redirect it
  • do this by keeping the cue and the reward and just replacing the routine.

What Keystone Habits are really about, and probably why I’ve always struggled with the term, ¹ is because behavioral change is really driven by small wins—ie early victories that are relatively easy to reach. Therefore it’s “small wins” and not “keystone habits” that help you viscerally believe that change is possible.

What Duhigg—and over 500 research articles who referenced Baumeister’s work—got wrong: “Willpower is the most important keystone habit.” No, it’s not. This finding, which is false, directed my attentions for the next several years, only to realize that willpower is way, way overrated and the studies were rotten (looking at you Baumeister!).

Following habits is not only a key part of our lives but also a key part of organizations and companies. All habits comprise a cue-routine-reward loop, and the easiest way to change this is to substitute the routine for something else while keeping the cue and reward the same. Achieving lasting change in life is difficult, but it can be done by focusing on important keystone habits such as willpower.

Footnotes §

1. Too simple perhaps, because in making the process super sticky with only 3 steps, he left out an important fourth step between Cue and Routine: Craving. James Clear picked up on this too and made it explicit in How Atomic Habits fit into the conversation on habits ↩ ↩²