Change a Bad Habit for Good

Practical tips from today’s research

If you’ve ever tried to break a bad habit—and who hasn’t? — you know how tough it can be. You might worry that you’re short on willpower, but science tells a different story. When we get into a habit — say, snacking on something sweet every afternoon — that behavior gets embedded in our brain’s basal ganglia.

There’s a perfectly practical reason for this: The brain is constantly on the lookout for shortcuts (such as habits) that will reduce mental strain. When you first learn to do something, it takes plenty of mental juice to focus on the new task. But eventually, the many little actions involved become habits and you can do the same task pretty easily.

Of course, when a bad habit becomes stamped into your brain, it can be tough to undo. Still, the mind is pliable and researchers say that, with a little effort, you can retrain your brain. To retrain your brain, follow these tips:

• Try to change several bad habits at once. One study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that people who tried to quit smoking, eat healthier and exercise — all at the same time — were actually more successful than those who tackled just one habit at a time.
• Avoid triggers. Many behaviors are cued by a specific situation or environment. If you have a habit of pulling into that burger drive-through on your way home from work, start taking a different route home so you won’t be tempted.
• Keep your stress level under control. Research suggests that when you’re under stress, your brain is more likely to default to habitual behavior.
• Be patient. You may have heard that it takes 21 days to break a bad habit, an idea popularized by the 1960 self-help  book Psycho-Cybernetics. But research from MIT and elsewhere shows that can vary greatly. Don’t expect immediate results, and try to be consistent. Slipping once or twice may not hurt you, but keep in mind that every time you veer off-track, you reduce your chances of breaking your bad habit.
• Find a new “good” habit, and help your brain to enjoy it. Want to exercise regularly? Pair your workouts with something you enjoy, like listening to your favorite music, and you’ll start to associate the two.