The Importance Of Habits

In a real world, when we wake up, we do the same type of things every day. Some people eat the same type of food, wear the same type of outfits, have the same hairstyles; many people repeat the same type of thinking pattern, and often the same types of small decisions we make in our lives. We have been doing these things for so long that we don’t even realize that they are the sum of our habits, and that’s what leads us to what we are today. Habits are what build our life and character. Habits are different from person to person. Some people have good habits; some have bad ones. The problem with our brain is it is not smart enough to differentiate between good habits and bad habits. However, the good news is by understanding how habit works, …show more content…
There is always some kind of desire we have in doing some work, and that desire varies from person-to-person. For example, people go for walk to slim down, while others may just go to enjoy nature. Powerful desire makes us do different things, and that’s what powers the habit loop which is known as a craving. Craving drives the habit loop, and it also plays an important role in forming new habits. Some work we do just once, but because of the end reward, we may keep doing it over and over again. This means we have started to crave the reward that we get from that work, and that’s how habits are …show more content…
I learned that playing that same game over-and-over was one of my habits. I also became more aware and conscious of what was happening in my brain when I felt like playing the game, and found out that I was craving a desire of high score and being competitive with my friends, and I was rewarding myself with the feeling of relaxing and cheerfulness. So actually it was not the game that I was interested in, but it was the end reward that was driving my habit loop. Although, the game was the main routine that was leading me to the reward, but thinking back, playing the game was a waste of time and I was not being productive at all. That’s why, I decided to change this habit; so I tried avoiding my laptop, uninstalling game from the laptop, but nothing really worked for a long time. At the same time, I learned from Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habits” that in order to change the habit I have to change the routine while keeping the same cue and same reward. In addition, I came to know that the habitual cue that was triggering my game habit was being at home whole day with my laptop so I started going to the gym and listen to music. I quickly found out that I am getting the same result of being relaxed and joyfulness. As studies have proven that gym and music has many benefits including improved mood and increased feelings of energy. After a few weeks going to the gym and