Break Your Bad Habits Through Reinforcements

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhig - http://amzn.to/2E9nc8O

First what is a reinforcement?  In psychology, there are punishments and reinforcements.  Punishments (both positive and negative) are used to decrease a specific behavior while reinforcements (positive or negative) are use to increase a specific behavior.

A negative reinforcement is when you remove an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior.
One example would be if your boss kept nagging you to finish a report.  Once the report is done (desired behavior), the boss stops nagging (removal of aversive stimulus).

Positive reinforcement is adding a pleasant stimulus, or a reward, to increase a behavior.
This might look like rewarding yourself with a piece of chocolate (adding a pleasant stimulus) after you successfully stuck to your diet and avoided the donuts in the break room (desired behavior).

Again, both positive and negative reinforcements are effective in increasing a desired behavior.  However, through research it seems to look like negative reinforcement is good to start the initial change in behavior, while positive reinforcement is best for maintaining that behavior [citation2].

So what can you do to break a bad habit?

You have to really feel it down to your core that you can’t tolerate this bad habit anymore.

Create a plan.  When we fall into a habit, there are certain cues that kick our brain into automatic and we find ourselves smoking or watching tv instead of exercising without even thinking about it.

Once you’ve got your list, create a plan to replace your bad habit with a productive one each time one of your cues pop up.

The more you can prepare ahead of time, the easier it’ll be to stay on track with your plan.

Reward your success.  The positive stimulus will come from the endorphins you get when you work out, the 20 minute break you give yourself after being fully engaged for 90 minutes, or when you start to see your body growing stronger and healthier.