At
its core, this is a question about habits, specifically, how to lose
harmful habits and how to make beneficial ones. Requires focus,
discipline and persistence. To do what? To invest the time and energy
necessary to accurately diagnose the three essential parts of a habit,
namely, it's cue, reward and routine. A few years back, Charles Duhigg came up with this comprehensive infographic to help deconstruct habits.
As
the graphic explains, accurate diagnosis is necessary and requires
time, energy and interest to experiment. Experimentation in turn is
necessary to uncover the cue and reward system underlying a harmful
habit.
A crucial idea is Keystone Habit,
i.e., the power of some habits to trigger a chain reaction of other
habits. An ecological concept that finds its place in anything from
healthy microbiota to sociology, implicit in keystone is the notion that
some habits are simply more powerful than others. Thus, the process of
deconstructing habits involves as well identifying those that are
keystone. Unsurprisingly, willpower or self-discipline is a core
keystone habit.
For e.g., some weight-loss
studies showed that forcing oneself to form the new habit of keeping and
logging entries in a food journal, i.e., a food log, turned out to have
unexpected benefits. For many participants a once-weekly exercise even
became daily and helped them notice previously undiscerned patterns in
their behavior, plan healthier menus and make more conscious decisions
about eating healthier food. Though Duhigg wrote an entire book on the
Power of Habit, his New York Times article on the same topic is
sufficient to get the idea: How Companies Learn Your Secrets
Obviously an obstacle in the quest to change habits, cognitive dissonance
is another necessary factor to consider. It arises from different
systems we have for assigning value. Thus, diagnosing the source of
conflict between different valuation systems with respect to a harmful
habit, say, habitual unhealthy snacking, is also necessary (see figures
below from Rangel, Antonio, Colin Camerer, and P. Read Montague. "A
framework for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making."
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9.7 (2008): 545-556. http://worthylab.tamu.edu /Course...).
Other tips that could help include
- Starting with baby steps, i.e., scaling down the scale of change one seeks, something not so easy to do since the ego often demands or seeks a much more ambitious scope. However, though difficult, setting realistic goals is necessary.
- Not giving up immediately at the first sign of setback.
- Being patient with and forgiving of oneself.
Finally,
any number of tips and tricks aren't going to do the trick by
themselves. Habit is the result of many, largely unconscious, decision
making processes. Intellectually deconstructing them can be relatively
easy, even fun. Emotionally engaging with the process is the hard part. Unless engaged in the process both intellectually and emotionally, habit changing is likely to fail.
https://www.quora.com/What-advice-would-people-give-to-someone-who-struggles-with-delaying-gratification/answer/Tirumalai-Kamala
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