Pattern Disruption Part 3: Why Are “Bad” Habits Easier To Form Than “Good” Ones?

Have you ever found yourself in the throws of a “bad” habit and asked yourself, “How did this happen? How did I get here?”

(I’m putting “bad” in quotation marks because some habits we consider “bad” are just neutral…but for our purposes let’s assume you’d like to “reprogram” a habit with a better one).

If you’ve been following along in this “Pattern Disruption” Series…

You may have come across a few “Default Settings” (Part 1), that you might like to “Reprogram” (Part 2). (TLDR: When building a desired habit, we are likely breaking an already engrained habit.)

You may not notice a bad habit or “default setting” until you try to break or reprogram it. You formed a habit without even trying!

So why is forming a good habit so much harder than forming a “bad” one?
The short answer is “rewards.” 

“Bad habits” typically have immediate rewards
“Good habits” typically have long-term rewards. 

But the “habit loop” prioritizes the immediate rewards. 

Let’s Review the Habit Loop:

Cue → Craving→ Response → Reward→  (Repeat)
Every habit you have has gone through this process…often without your awareness.

An example from my own life:

• Cue: Get home, sit down, take out my phone. 

• Craving: Something to take my mind off the day

• Response: Opening/scrolling  Instagram

• Reward: I see something I like (like this) and dopamine is released. 

After I repeat “taking my phone out when I come home” a few times I start to crave the reward of “videos that will take my mind off the day”

Our brains say “Yeah! That feels good, more of that!” so we continue to DO the behavior,

The kicker is…. the reward might not actually be good for us. 

Scrolling isn’t what I want to do, but once it’s automated, it’s hard to go against the prediction of the immediate reward.

Usually, things that are great for us in the short term are NOT great (sometimes harmful) for us in the long term.

Our brains are AMAZING, but weirdly… they don’t care that much about our future. 

They’re most concerned with keeping us alive right now…for the next 10 seconds. 

And everything you’ve done so far has kept you alive to this point, so why change anything? 

In many “good” habits, the reward is a long-term one that’s earned cumulatively over time…

But that is tougher for our brain to make associations and predictive patterns around…

I’ve said it in every blog of this series, but I’ll say it again because I think it’s important: 

Our brain makes patterns around what we DO not what we WANT to do. 

So if you WANT to DO something…

…you may need to make your own habit loop and consider implementing an immediate reward.

(Waiting to reward yourself at the end of the week may be a nice motivator, but it’s not the most effective for creating an intentional habit loop).

Here are some immediate rewards you could try: 

• Brag it out: Find some accountability buddies (or join 10 min a day club) and gloat to them when you’ve completed your habit that day. (Reward= pride, belonging, bragging rights) 

• Check off a “tracker,” (Reward= visually pleasing) 

• Habit-stack something you already do/ love right after (or during) 

• Light a candle during/after the habit

• Put on your favorite playlist or podcast while you do the habit

Find something that lights your brain up (that is also neutral or good for you in the long term)- something that makes you go “Ooooh I get to _____.”

And keep repeating the loop for yourself! 

And if you WANT to STOP doing something… first identify the habit loop.

What cues you into the behavior, and what do you get out of it that keeps you coming back for more?

How might you use these “rewards” tools to disrupt your current patterns and reprogram your default settings? Let me know here!