How Habits Are Really Formed

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*Part of an ongoing exploration into behaviour , habits, and the psychology behind sustainable fitness.*

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Most people think habits are formed throguh discipline or dramatic life changes. In reality, habits emerge quietly through repetition and reinforcement. A simple experiment from the nineteenth dentruy illustrates this surprisingly well.

In the late nineteenth century, an American psychologist placed cats inside a simple cage. The cage had a hidden lever which, when pressed, opened the door. As first the cats clawed, scratched, and struggled randomly to escape. Eventually one of them accidentally pressed the lever and the dorr opened. Again they would scramble and go about doing whatever it is that they did to escape, till they accidentally pressed the lever and cage door would open and some or all cats would escape. Gradually the cats begin to gauge this pattern and learned that when the lever was pressed, the door would swing open. This process (or trials as they call it) would be repeated twenty to thirty times and the psychologist conducting this experiment was Edward Thorndike. He would go on to make a note of one of the following observations –

With repeated trials, the cats began pressing the lever faster each time.

Slowly the act of pressing a lever became a habit.

The Stories We Tell About Our Habits

“I am not a morning person”

“I am not disciplined”

"I have to eat pizzas"

“I need something sweet to eat at night”

“I have to drink cola”

“I need my drink”

“I need to smoke”

.... et al, are some of the hundreds of variations I get to hear from my clients often.

Much of our daily behaviour is simply the expression of our habits - repeated actions performed sop often that they begin to feel automatic.

The Myth of Radical Change

We often asssume that habits change because of a dramatic turning point. But in this way, we have the disposition to ignore the little consistent effort that goes behind performing a repetitive behaviour day in and day out over time. Moreover, it is easy for us to say that ‘oh, you are disciplined that’s why...’ and underestimate the drudgery of the repeated effort put in by that individual on a consistent basis over time to be where he or she is today. Even in my own struggle to break bad habits and forge good ones, I have realised that it’s less to do with motivation and discipline but more to do with repetition. You build endurance in the gym by doing repetitions with weights. Skills get sharpened by practising the art repeatedly. Courage gets built by facing your fears repeatedly.

The Brain Learns Through Repetition

Repeating any behaviour is known to cause changes in the brain. “Neurons that fire together, wire together” was quoted by Donald Hebb in 1949, and is commonly referred to as Hebb’s Law. When scientists analysed some taxi drivers in London, they found that the hippocampus region – a region involved in spatial memory – was significantly larger than non-taxi drivers. When you exercise you build strength in your muscles and once you stop then the muscles atrophy. It was noted that the hippocampus region of the tax drivers decreased as they retired. Repetitive behaviour is known to establish a neural path in the brain, and as you go on repeating that behaviour the neural path gets forged – and gets its own protective sheath around that path, as the behaviour becomes automatic.

The Problem with Life Hacks

However, in this era where we are on the prowl for ‘life hacks’ our focus has gotten somewhat shifted to getting something quickly rather than on performing repetitive behaviour. For example, we constantly focus on hacking our way to get a great physique, losing ten kilos, going on a crash diet, subscribing to some new diet fad, et al. As convenience has sneaked its way into our lives we are constantly on the lookout for such quick fixes avoiding the little consistent efforts that go into building strong habits. We prefer not to do the cooking instead grab that pack of chips and munch on them. Our innate tendency has shifted to finding shortcuts in not only our daily behaviours but to even achieve desired personal outcomes. We wish to quickly subscribe to get-rich-quick trades without realising that wealth requires constant patient piecemeal efforts on a daily or monthly basis.

This tendency to look for hacks is bolstered by our inherent need to steer away from what’s hard or painful to do. Doing the same thing in the same fashion regularly is kind of hard to do. Getting up every day in the morning and going for a jog without fail is hard to do. Sticking to the timings of your diet plan is a hard thing to do. Reading something good on a daily basis for 30 min before sleeping is a difficult action to perform.

Looking at whatever we do from a long term perspective and from the lens of habits can work to our advantage.

The Simple Law Behind Habits

The principle behind habits is surprisingly simple.

Behaviour that prdocues satisfying consequences tends to be repeated. Behavour that produces discomfort tends to fade away.

Over time, repetition queity turns these beahviours into habits. What we often call discipline is simply the visible outcome of habits practiced long enough.

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© Mayur Mathur

This essay is the original work and shall not be reproduced without permission.