{"id":116348,"date":"2023-10-25T10:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T14:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=116348"},"modified":"2023-10-30T12:27:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T16:27:03","slug":"how-to-change-your-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-change-your-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Change Your Habits and Make Positive Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What strategies can you use to learn how to change your habits<\/a>? Can you make positive behavior change easier?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To change your habits, work on your beliefs about yourself, make flexible plans, and keep track of your progress. Learning these strategies can make a big difference in whether or not your new habits stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover how to make behavior changes that stick with a change in mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Behavior Change From Within and Without<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is one mainstream model for how to change your habits popularized by Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit<\/a><\/em>) and later modified by James Clear (Atomic Habits<\/em><\/a>). That model\u2014cue leads to behavior leads to reward, thus reinforcing the habit\u2014evokes in turn the research of B.F. Skinner<\/a>. Skinner was a 20th-century psychologist who developed the concept of operant conditioning<\/a>, a behavior change technique wherein a consequence (a reward or punishment) works to reinforce or dissuade the preceding behavior. He discovered this by training rats to navigate maze-like boxes, hit levers, and receive rewards or punishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skinner focused purely on measurable, external dynamics because, along with many psychologists at the time, he felt that the mind was a black box unamenable to scientific study. He explicitly rejected the relevance of beliefs, emotions, or other mental processes to behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some don\u2019t quite follow Skinner\u2019s lead, instead opting to approach behavior change through analysis of internal conditions\u2014for instance, by explaining procrastination as a built-in feature of human nature\u2014and devising responses to them. However, this also doesn\u2019t address how beliefs or emotions might influence our habits and habit change<\/a> efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear, though, does: He recommends that you build lasting habits on the foundation of new, identity-based beliefs<\/a>. In other words, you\u2019d decide that you want to be a particular kind of person, and then you\u2019d practice the habits that make it true until you deeply believe you are that kind of person. This way your habits will root more deeply in your psychology and you won\u2019t have to convince yourself to keep up with them as you\u2019ve already become a person for whom they\u2019re second nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The takeaway: Behavior change is probably more complex than treating yourself like a rat hitting a lever for a reward.<\/strong> Rewards help reinforce behaviors, but it\u2019s also likely important to reflect on your internal state\u2014on the beliefs you hold about certain behaviors, the emotions that are tied in with them\u2014so that when you recondition your habits, it doesn\u2019t stop at the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Reinforce New Habits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To help reinforce your new habits, you can use a few additional tactics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n