Lately I've been devouring a lot of pop psychology books, I never thought I would be the type to read these types of books but it turns out I find the brain extremely fascinating.
Whilst travelling through Canada and the USA I read a book on The Power of Habit. I always wondered how sometimes I would be driving home and my mind would wander off, before I knew it I would be home with no recollection of driving 5 blocks. Apparently that's habit.
A habit generally consists of a cue, a routine and a reward. The idea of changing habits is you can't just stop, you need to reprogram them. For example I often wake bleary eyed and stumble to the coffee machine for a quick wake me up. We have one of those automatic machines so it makes it incredibly easy – stumble to kitchen. Add milk to jug. put in cup. press a button. caffeine.
My trigger is I am tired, my routine is I have a coffee, my reward is refreshed (well sort of). To reprogram this I could a) get more sleep so I am not so tired b) replace coffee with something the helps me feel refreshed and awake. However, because this habit is so ingrained in me (much like changing gears on the car), it does take a lot more will power to reprogram it.
So with the count down to my wedding only 1 month away, I wanted to set myself a little spring challenge and have decided that for October I am going to try and 'reprogram' a few bad habits I have developed over time and also introduce some new positive ones. I won't go into great detail about them, as that is boring, but I have a couple of habits around coffee consumption (way too much), booze, being active and digital devices. The list could go on, but this is my focus for now. You can follow my journey on instagram. Do you have any nasty habits you'd like to kick? or any great new ones you'd like to start?
