Hello dark, depressing mid-January. Isn’t this about the time our willpower and commitment to New Year’s resolutions starts to wane?
I came across this article recently about the how to break bad habits. Blame the direct marketer in me, but I was intrigued by the test & control approach: Identify your habit, what triggers it, what you get out of it, then experiment with replacement activities.
If you don’t have 5 minutes to read the article, here’s the Executive Summary. The author has fallen into the habit of craving a cookie everyday at 3 PM. He figures out his craving isn’t triggered by hunger, but instead by needing a break from work and some chit chat with colleagues. He replaces the cookie habit with conversation, loses 8 lbs, gets a promotion and wins the lottery. OK, I made up the last part.
Here’s the original article, which ran in the January/February 2013 issue of Experience Life:
https://experiencelife.com/article/the-power-of-habit/
If you’d rather watch & listen instead of read, here’s the video.