How To Form New Habits And Change Existing Ones

Kunal Yadav
Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

We first make our habits, then our habits make us — John Dryden

Whether it is self-improvement or changing your life, we always talk about habits

We say that success is the result of forming good habits and acting according to them. But seldom we try to find how are habits actually formed.

Without knowing how habits are formed or changed we keep on failing to form good habits and think that we just can’t do it.

But here’s the good news, We can form new habit and change existing ones by understanding the science behind it.

Scientists have found that every habit works in a three step loop.

  1. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use.
  2. Second, there is the routine, this is the actual work which you do as the part of the habit. It can be physical, mental or emotional.
  3. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain to figure out whether this loop is worth remembering.
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Let’s take an example of a chat notification, the cue here is the notification or notification sound. The routine is to open up the notification and reply. The reward is the satisfaction of sending the message and transferring the responsibility on the other person.

The same thing happens with the addiction to smoking and drinking. The cue is the feeling of sadness or loneliness. The routine is to smoke and drink. The reward is the sensational feeling you get after the routine.

Now you know how are habits formed, let’s learn how to form habits.

How to form new Habits?

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Forming new habits can be tough but if you follow the above-described habit loop, you can surely do it.

Let’s see how you will form the habit of exercising daily. The first thing we need is a cue, a trigger. It can be an alarm clock or reminder. It can be your gym or exercise clothes or even a picture of your fitness mentor (like a celebrity).

Next up is routine. This is the actual exercise that you would perform. It can also include interactions with other people at a park or a gym.

The third step is the reward. It is the satisfaction and the fit body that you get after exercising. Some people even feel good about themselves when they exercise daily.

This is the same tactic that is used in TV commercials by companies. Consider an advertisement of a face wash. It starts with a person seeing himself ugly and dirty (a cue). He then applies some cream on his face (the routine). After washing, he gets a clean and bright face (the reward).

Forming new habits is identifying the habit loop that works for you depending upon the habit you are trying to form.

Why do we form habits?

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We have learned how are habits formed and how to form new habits, now you may ask, Why do we form habits?

Actually, there is a scientific reason for that. Scientists have found that when we follow our habits our brain activity decreases. Our brain doesn’t have to work so hard when we do something regularly.

So, during the beginning of a habit, our brain works hard to look for something — a cue — that helps it to identify which pattern to use next time it sees that same cue.

I have experienced this myself. Every day when I take a look at my books collection, I get this urge of just picking a book and start reading it.

How can we change our habits?

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Forming new habits is great! But how do we change our existing habits?

Researchers have found that we never forget our old habits. Instead, our brain just develops a new routine for habits.

You may have probably heard about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), the nonprofit organisation that helps people who are addicted to alcohols. There are a lot of success stories about people who have actually dropped their addiction to alcohols after consulting this organisation.

So how does AA does that? Well AA regularly organises meetings in which different people talk to each other and share their experiences. They talk about how they get addicted to alcohol and how alcohol is destroying their lives.

So, when people become sad and frustrated (a cue), now they don’t drink (the old routine) but instead they go to these meeting and talk to others and share with them what’s going on in their mind (the new routine).

After talking to others they feel like a burden has been taken away from their shoulders and they feel good (the reward).

There are a lot of examples that show how changing the routines, people have changed their habits.

Like instead of always hanging out with their friends and spending hours talking about useless things, people have started to read books or learn something which eventually provides them the same reward — they feel good about themselves.

Our brain is a wonderful gift that has been given to us. It can help us become the person we have always desired to become. Use it wisely.


I hope you have gained something better out of this article.

I would recommend reading Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. It is a great book that explains deeply how habits are formed and changed.

If you liked this post, kindly tap the ❤ button below and share, so that others can also get benefit from it!

Thank you so much for reading!

Kunal Yadav

Written by

Product Engineer at Squad, AWS Certified Professional who loves Cloud and reading books.

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