Two causes why you can't quit and form habits

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests:

“Self-control requires a certain amount of glucose to operate unimpaired. A single act of self-control causes glucose to drop below optimal levels, thereby impairing subsequent attempts at self-control.”

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Several studies suggest that we have limited reserves of willpower, the fuel of our willpower is glucose, and this fuel depletes when we use our willpower to do or avoid actions.

“For instance,” Dr. Roy Baumeister, a researcher at Florida State University says, “In a study in my lab, we invited some students to eat fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies, and asked others to resist the cookies and munch on radishes instead. Then we gave them impossible geometry puzzles to solve. The students who ate the cookies worked on the puzzles for 20 minutes, on average. But the students who had resisted the tempting cookies gave up after an average of eight minutes.”

Source

Now can you guess what are those two mistakes that prevent people to form good habits and quit bad ones?

They’re here:

1. They depend only on their willpower
2. They decide to work on too many habits at the same time

But according to recent studies humans have limited reserves of willpower. So, if despite Herculean efforts you aren’t able to form many habits at the same time, it means that your willpower is getting depleted.

In this situation you end up hating yourself, feel guilty, and jump on the conclusion that there’s a defect in your character.

Bullshit.

The truth is that the defect isn’t in your character – it’s in your approach.

So what’s the correct approach?

Well, the correct approach is to use your willpower strategically.

Start small

Let me assume that you want to form the exercising habit. You begin by doing hard labour, and with a resolve that you'll never quit it. But after a few days your enthusiasm evaporates and you quit.

In this situation, don't exercise for long time. Instead, start by exercising for 10/20 minutes. It’s much easier and soon you’ll see that it has become automatic with you. Then you can gradually increase the time.

Concentrate your focus

Focus mainly on one habit till its purpose (exercising or waking up early) becomes easy for you. In this way your complete willpower will get centred to hit its target with full force. You can then choose to work on the next habit, and then on the next one, and so on. It’s only a matter of time that you’ll install a number of productive habits.

Additionally, in my previous post I told you how I quit my bad habits without much willpower. (Though it’s on quitting bad habits, the advice and examples present in it will work equally well on forming good habits too.) I started small, implemented some clever tactics and made some changes in my environment to get success – thus using my willpower frugally and relying less on its limited reserves.

For instance, to get rid of Facebook addiction, I started resisting the urge only for 5 minutes and applied the Pomodoro Technique. To know more how you can start small, use clever tactics and change the environment, read that post here.

"Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

Samuel Smiles

How I quit these 4 sinful habits without much willpower

“If you don't want to slip, don't go where it's slippery.”

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS MAXIM

You get full of motivation to quit your bad habits and feel confident that you’re reach success – but after some time your towering motivation crumbles – compelling you to back off.

Your mistake?

You choose to rely only on your motivation and willpower.

The problem in this approach is that our motivation rises and falls. The moment we feel super-motivated, we’re able to go full-steam and do what we wish…but as that feeling drops we’re again back to that prison of bad habits.

The secret of quitting bad habits lies in clever techniques and bringing changes in the environment. See below how I got rid of my bad habits without much willpower but by changing the environment around and implement the advice on yourself.

1. The habit of waking up late

To change this habit, I bought a clock with the most hateful-sounding alarm. I used to place it far from me, at the height of 11/12 feet. When the alarm used to fill the morning silence with its nasty blare, I had to rush and climb up a chair to switch it off.

My mind used to rouse by the hateful alarm, getting out from the sweet sleeping mode. And when I had rushed and climbed up the chair to switch it off, I used to be active enough to snatch the fruitful morning moments to study and work. Now I’m habitual of waking early!

2. The habit of smoking

To quit smoking I started to buy one cigarette at a time instead of bringing the full packet of 10 or 20. Whenever I felt the urge to smoke, I had to get out of my room to walk to the shop to buy it. I started to delay smoking and sometimes didn’t even go to the shop because it was an effort for me.

Thus, several times I managed without smoking, and it made me realise that quitting smoking isn’t so difficult. Now without cigarettes I’m healthy and happy!

3. The habit of regularly checking Facebook

Amid deep work Facebook used to tempt me, killing my concentration. Resisting the evil urge luring me from a click away was too hard.

After failing to keep up the promise of checking Facebook once in a day, I started to take small steps. I started to resist the urge for 5 minutes. This small resistance rekindled the tiny embers of confidence, encouraging me to increase the resistance time.

I also used the Pomodoro Technique, which is setting aside small chunks of time for deep work and deciding to keep focusing on it until that time period is over. I started setting timer for 40 minutes, and decided that I’ll focus and give my complete concentration on my work during that time. If during those 40 minutes the urge of checking Facebook raised its head, I had to only tell it that the Pomodoro is on, and only a few minutes are left in it to get over. Now I don’t let Facebook interfere with my work!

4. The habit of regularly checking emails

Checking emails used to burn my time as fire burns wood. All my willpower had proved ineffective to quit this habit.

To tackle this, first I disabled the mail delivery from the mailing lists I was on, which cut the daily number of emails I received. I was thus prevented from getting into the enticing discussions and debates keep crackling there, which was a core cause for distraction.

Secondly, I used the Pomodoro Technique (which I also applied to get rid of Facebook addiction.) Now I’m not addicted to emails!

Back to you:

What’s the first bad habit you want to quit?

What tactics you’ll implement to quit it?

What fruitful changes quitting that bad habit will bring to your life?