#189: How to Take Control of Your Daily Behaviors - Habit Loop

Ever feel like you're stuck in the same patterns, repeating habits you wish you could break? You're not alone. The brain is wired to seek efficiency, and that’s where the habit loop comes into play. In this episode, we dive into the science behind habit formation, how cues, cravings, responses, and rewards shape our behaviors, and most importantly—how to rewire them to work in your favor.

Discover practical strategies to identify the habits holding you back, reshape your environment to support positive change, and finally take control of your daily routines. Whether you want to build better fitness habits, improve productivity, or eliminate bad behaviors, this episode will give you the tools to transform your life—one small change at a time.

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Transcript

#189: How to Take Control of Your Daily Behaviors - Habit Loop

[00:00:00] So today we are going to talk about creating and understanding the habit loop. The brain is always searching for efficient ways to get things done. So I want to get things done for you in the most efficient way to conserve. Your energy and a habit loop forms as the brain cycles and stores information to simplify tasks.

It's important to know how these loops start to occur. So then we can start to identify some habits that may be problematic in our life. And how we can look at changing them or creating new habits that are going to really work for what we're looking to achieve. Now a habit loop is defined as a performing action in the same way frequently.

The brain is hard, it hardwires information about our responses and a habit loop. is essential. It's essential to the way that we function in life. But the [00:01:00] brain doesn't define between the types of information that it stores. So it takes cues from physical, emotional responses and it hardwires the type of stress response when we, when we react to certain stimuli.

Uh, in the same way. So it will then start to be able to preempt things that might be coming up because of how we've acted previously. Um, and this is how, like, the anxiety loop can, you know, keep reoccurring. So if, even if something that starts to happen that's not as serious, the brain will pick up on those signals, um, from the body.

then start to put all the defenses in motion. So then we can start, it's trying to protect us. So the brain is, is wired to keep us safe. The thing that we need to always remind yourself of is what is safe. What is safe in the brain is not necessarily the best for us. It's just what's familiar. So I have it looped.

It's, it evolves over [00:02:00] time and it. It helps us, can help us to manage large volumes of information. Uh, the feedback loops is a brain's way of providing a fixed response to certain situations. So the habit loop is, can be separated into four individual responses. And when we start to understand these responses, then we can start to look at the habits that we have.

Uh, are they working for us and how we can look at changing them. According to according to your goal, what you're looking for. So the responses are cues, craving, response and reward. Okay, so the cue is the trigger that starts the whole process. And this is probably one of the most important things. Start looking at or start to recognize what are the cues in, in certain habits in your life.

So if we've identified some habits that we have, and then when you start to recognize a cue, you might realize like, Oh, that you're doing things you don't even [00:03:00] realize because, because of that cue. Um, you know, like, uh, how automatic driving starts to come, you automatically, you know, you want to turn, you automatically turn on the indicator, you know.

Um, so. So the cues, their behaviours, they're very responsive to the environment around us. It can be really, really important to control these types of cues when we're looking to change habits. When you're wanting to change these cues, the trick is to make them really obvious. So we're going to start looking at the cues that, that, will be working for us or working against us in whatever habits you are looking to create or change.

Let's give you some examples. So some examples are, could be like if you associate the, um, if you working from home and you are working from the, you might be working on your dining table. So then people find it really hard to find that break in their, um, Because they're in their family life and their work life because they're working from that [00:04:00] table, you know, that there's no end to that work because it's always there.

So you might associate a certain chair, uh, in your lounge room or something with eating, sitting and eating ice cream. And all these cues, remember, I did, uh, different to you, to you compared to anyone else. They're all unique to where you're at. So you might have a certain dining chair, sorry, a certain couch lounge chair or whatever.

And that's associated with sitting and eating ice cream. So every time you're going to sit on that chair, even if you don't think about it, even if you hadn't thought about it before, you're going to then want to get an ice cream. Uh, there was a, a study that they did and they had people that they had a bowl of cookies on.

the, on the kitchen bench. So every time they walk past, they just grab the cookies, even if they hadn't thought about the cookies. So, so we just want to look at what other cues that you have around. There was, I think it was called the Vietnam study and it was a study, uh, that they did on the Vietnam veterans.

So a lot of them became heroin addicts. And [00:05:00] this was talked about in the book, Atomic Habits, which I really recommend that you read. So they were, um, they were, uh, heroin addicts and. So obviously this, it was easy to get while they were over there. They were also surrounded by other heroin addicts, um, you know, during the war.

But when they found that a lot of them, when they went home, uh, back to America, they broke the habit of the drugs and they, they didn't, they didn't go back into. Being addicted to heroin where lots of people tend to go, you know, which is the exact opposite of what happens to people that go to rehab is they go to rehab and obviously when they're in rehab, all the triggers and all of that are away or the routines and the habits that they have.

Uh, are not there easier for them to come off it, but when they go back home into their normal life, those other triggers and all those things are still there. So it's more likely. So then, uh, that's why lots of people tend to [00:06:00] re-offend. So we wanna remember this study and think about yourself and think about your cues.

So what are your cues of habits that you are looking to change? And what are those cues? And then we, once we start to recognize them, we can look at changing them. So, uh, it can, it can be as simple as changing your furniture, like moving the location of your furniture or, uh, the routine in which you do things.

So that's the, uh, that's the first thing that we want to understand. Next, you want to understand the cravings. So these cravings is like a sense of anticipation that you feel after experiencing this cue. It will provide a spike of dopamine that will be higher than, um, what you'll receive when actually doing the behavior.

And so this makes these cravings really influential when it comes to your habits and behaviors. So that's why we want to look at, uh, you know, the, the cue is going to trigger off this craving. [00:07:00] Uh, the next is a response. So this is the behavior or action that is taken as a result or the response for the cue or the cra for your cue or craving.

It's positive behavior. You want to take this action a more, you know, do this more often. So I'm probably more looking at habits we're looking to change, but if it's habits we want to create or keep up, if it's positive, then we want to keep, um, doing this more often. Um, um, and if you want to keep creating.

For new habits, we want to make it as easy as possible. You want it to limit the kind of friction that you might feel that's, that's going to um, make it harder. We'll use the example of, you know, lots of people say they struggle to, and I've seen this in me, like you go, Oh, I don't want to work out for an hour, you know, but generally if I say I'm going to do five minutes.

[00:08:00] Um, you know, if you are looking to create a new habit of running and instead of looking at the bigger picture, we're only going to look at the small picture and just putting on you put on your running shoes. And then once you've got your running shoes on, you're like, okay, I'm more inclined to do it. Um, the same of, um, you know, of getting your, um, ready for exercise.

So, so, you know, like if you get your clothes on, you know, and so then that's what we want to look at making when we're looking at our response. Because the brain is always going to look for the path of least resistance. So we want to make it as simple as possible in creating. You know, if you're looking to create a new habit, and obviously if you're looking to get rid of a habit, we've got to go back to the cues and you would want to make it harder for you because you're more inclined not to do it when it's harder.

They say about setting yourself up for success the night, you know, the night before. So say you would lay your clothes out, have your water bottle, your keys ready. So there's nothing that can stop you on the way. Um, and you're more inclined to succeed. [00:09:00] Stick to it and to keep going. And then the last thing is the reward.

So the reward is the mechanism that determines whether or not you, um, keep, keep, keep on with the behavior. So it's the benefit that you're going to get for it. Now we want to understand all and understand how each phase works. in creating the new habits that you're looking for. So you'll see how they all start to, um, you know, they all start to, how each habit influences whether, you know, on this habit loop and, uh, how it influences the decisions we're making and whether we're going to stick to something or not.

When you start to pay more attention, you'll notice, um, I always talk about when I used to live in Glasgow, I knew. If I went home, if I went, I worked in the city and I wanted to go to the gym, but I knew if I went home after work, I would not go to the gym. I would go home and I'd get caught. So I had to create something so I would carry my gym with me.[00:10:00] 

gear to this, to work, so I'd carry it into work with me. I would come home, walk past my own house to the gym because, um, I knew that if I knew I had to keep going, because if I went home, I wouldn't go back out. So, so, so that's why I created that path of least resistance of already having that stuff.

Cause it was going to be harder for me to go home and to get changed at home and whatever else. Um, so it's things like that. So you've got to look at how. How you can make it as easy as possible. I used to, again, I'm using exercise as an example, I used to sleep in my gym clothes. So then I would, when I was doing an early morning, participating in an early morning class, I'd sleep in my gym clothes.

So then I just had to get up and, um, get my keys and just get straight out the door. So I was making it as. Easy as possible for me to not give up. And when we are looking at changing habits or creating new habits, I want you to start looking at what are the things you were doing. So look at the cues, what is [00:11:00] tricking you to do something, to feel, you know, in a positive or a negative way, according to what type of creating new habit or.

And remember what are the cues? How are you responding? You know, what are your cravings? I guess how you, um, what are the behaviors and your response to that? And then what is your reward for that? And then we're reminding ourselves of why we're doing this, which goes back to our why. So why are we doing this?

What are we really wanting to get out of it? And when, when we kind of remind ourselves of all of those things, we are more inclined to stick to it.