H abits are behaviors we perform on a daily or otherwise regular basis. They’re not just any behaviors, though. A behavior is a habit if some component of it is at least somewhat “automatic.”
Some studies estimate that habits make up over 40% of our everyday behavior.¹ Since we spend almost half our lives on autopilot, learning how to shape and leverage habits to our benefit can have a huge impact.
In this guide, I’m going to tell you exactly how habits work, dispel the 21-day habit-formation myth, show you how to stick to healthy habits and break bad ones, and point you towards habits that will change your life.
Let’s do this.
How Habits Work
In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg summarizes a lot of research on how habits are formed and maintained and how they can be broken. In a nutshell, habits comprise three main parts:
- An environmental cue
- A behavioral response
- A reward (or the removal of an unpleasant stimulus)
With a habit, there’s some cue that triggers a behavior. For example, if you eat at the same time every day, time is the trigger, eating is the behavior — that’s a habit.
Habits are reinforced by rewards. Sometimes the rewards are easy to spot. Take our eating…
