Excellence is Not an Act But a Habit. How So?
- Muna Zain
- Apr 30, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 17
Science reveals that the brain is much more adaptive than we initially assumed. It possesses the ability to form and disrupt neural pathways. It is fascinating to note that neurogenesis, the generation of new brain cells, can continue throughout our lifespan. This signifies that your brain has the potential for change.
However, change can only commence when you take action. It all begins with you. As stress becomes more common in our world, studies have shown that our brains tend to favor automatic decisions or habits.
Just as positive emotions have the power to rewire our brains, negative emotions like anxiety and stress also possess this ability; it's called brain energy. Due to its preference for conserving energy, the brain tends to follow the path of least resistance and rely on habitual patterns for making-decisions. It just reverts to habits.
Let's take a closer look at habits and explore them in more detail.
The actions that we repeat regularly are what define our habits. It is interesting to note that around 43% of the activities we engage in on a daily basis are believed to be habitual, according to research.
The activity leaves a lasting imprint on neural pathways, and due to their automatic nature, these algorithms tend to operate in the background without drawing much attention.
During my leadership certificate program at Cornell, particularly in Making Strategic Change Happen course, I was fascinated by the concept of habit formation as presented through Charles Duhigg's insights from his popular book "The Power of Habit," which emphasized the significance of understanding how habits operate and the crucial elements of the habit loop in the context of forming habits.
Duhigg believes that altering negative habits and establishing positive ones becomes simpler if one understands how habits function. He introduced the "Habit Loop", which consists of three essential components: a cue, a routine or a behavior representing the habit itself, and a reward. The cue is the trigger that puts the habit in motion; the routine is the set of actions in response to a cue; and the reward is the positive experience that results from the routine. The cue must trigger both the routine and a craving for the reward.
-eCornell | Building Habits Tool
The cue, which can be in the form of a prior action, the time of day, the location, or any other triggering factor, is essential for initiating habitual behavior. The cue, serving as a trigger, can initiate a habit once it is associated with that habit in a person's mind.
When it comes to the habit loop, the behavior represents the actual habit that one exhibits, and the reward, which can be positive feelings, serves as the ultimate change or desired routine.
Habit Change
The strategy for dealing with habits is not to eliminate them, but rather to substitute them with more desirable ones. The key to habit change lies in preserving the original cue and reward while making adjustments to the routine. An old or undesirable routine can be effectively replaced by implementing a good or desired new routine. Due to the long-standing nature of many of our habits, it is possible that we are oblivious to the cues and rewards that influence them. Initially, a habit may be triggered by a specific goal; however, as time passes, the significance of that goal diminishes, and the habit begins to operate on autopilot.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that intermittent or uncertain rewards have proven to be highly effective when it comes to promoting habits of learning.
Habits of Excellence
It is believed that keystone habits are those routines that can facilitate the adoption of other habits. Certain habits can trigger a sequence of events that ultimately impact and mold additional habits. By practicing these habits, you will start to see a transformation in other patterns and notice the emergence of new positive habits. Keystone habits have the power to generate "small wins," which, over time, can pave the way for significant and transformative changes. Two keystone habits frequently mentioned are exercise and meditation, as they can establish new routines and facilitate the transformation of other habits. To put it briefly, habit changes tend to spread and become contagious.
When individuals develop positive keystone habits, it increases the probability that they will engage in other healthy activities. The actions they took initiated a series of chain reactions. While some keystone habits are positive, it is worth mentioning that not all of them fall into that category. The crucial aspect to consider is that consistently engaging in one action can significantly impact your life, and adopting even a tiny good habit can enhance your overall well-being. And transforming each desired action into a habit is essential for sustaining positive change.
To summarize, although personal change may not be a simple or quick process, one can initiate personal change by implementing Duhigg's recommendations. To do so, consider the following steps:
Step 1. Identify the routine you want to change
Step 2. Experiment with rewards
Step 3. Isolate the cue
Step 4. Have a plan to practice until the routine becomes automatic
-eCornell | Building Habits Tool 2023
As Aristotle once stated, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
If you'd like to learn more about habit formations, I highly recommend reading The 'Power of Habit' by Charles Duhigg.
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