4 Strategies to Break Bad Habits
There's a Fast Company article that highlights a group of people who get a surgery called "angioplasties" – a procedure that opens up arteritis in the heart to clear out the blockage.
1.3 million people get this surgery every year and are told by their doc that although the surgery relieves chest pain, it won't prevent heart attacks or prolong their lives.
BUT they can make behavioral changes to their lifestyle that can help prevent the long-term effects of heart disease – less smoking/drinking, more nutrient-dense diets, move movement, less stress, etc.
Yet most people don't make any changes at all.
Nearly half the patients see their arteries clog back up in a few months.
90% of people never make any changes at all.
Even in the face of a terrifying disease, people don't (or can't) change their behavior.
This is the best illustration I've seen of how freaking hard change is.
It's hard enough to change ourselves, and many of the people I work with – coaches and managers – take on the Herculean task of trying to help others change.
In my experience, the BEST coaches/trainers in the health and fitness space succeed only ~40% of the time.
If you're in a position where you have to motivate, influence, and persuade others, try to give yourself some compassion. Like in baseball, you're a hall of famer if you succeed 30-40% of the time.
But there are some things we can do to help change our behavior. Here are four of my favorite strategies to help make behavior change just a leeeetle bit easier.
1. Change Your Environment
I understand I'm not introducing Chat GPT to the world with this one, but I'd be remiss to leave it out. This is the single most powerful driver of behavior change. Bar none.
The fastest way to change your habits is to shift your surroundings at home and work, change your social circle, or get out of your normal environment altogether (travel, moving, etc.).
With that said, it's also the hardest thing to change. Most of us most of the time can't up and move, eliminate our siblings from our lives, or take a route home from work that doesn't go right by the Chick-fil-a 👀
However, anything you can do to increase the friction between you and the bad habit carries weight. It's why my wife doesn't let me keep Lays Wavy chips in the house. I can still sneak a bag here or there, but the Danny Coleman Total Chip Index is way down on the year.
2. Avoid Making Decisions/Taking Action Under Unfavorable Conditions
There are some weaknesses that none of us are exempt from. Welcome to Team Human. All of us, at times, get to deal with the pleasentries of stress, sleep deprivation, high emotional states (like anger), hunger, distractions, biases of perception, spilling coffee all over our keyboard, and the like.
These forces make us do all sorts of unfortunate things: reply all to the wrong work email, say mean things to our mother, or consume entire buckets of popcorn (just me?).
Alcoholics Anonymous, one of the most powerful behavior change organizations in the history of humankind, has an acronym for this: HALT.
HALT stands for: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
When AA members crave a drink, they're taught to "HALT" and first ask if they're feeling one of these things. And if so, they're taught to address the root cause first.
Have a snack
Take a walk
Call a friend
Take a nap
Stress and anger are my main gremlins. These two little shits have brought me a lot of regret and pain over the years. I've learned to deal with them with some advice from a mentor: take 24 hours and a workout. Before making big decisions, I try to take a day -- which typically comprises of a good night's sleep and some space between stimulus and response -- and a good workout to get my endorphins pumpin'.
If we're able to avoid making decisions or taking action (research shows for even as little as two minutes), we're less likely to engage in those behaviors that derail us.
3. Replace Decisions With Rules
Daniel Kahneman is one of the most well-regarded psychologists of our time, and he has a great tool to help us avoid those Lays Wavy Chips. He advises that we replace decisions with rules.
Whereas decisions come on a case-by-case basis – should I eat another chip, grab another beer, send this angry email – rules are algorithms that put good choices on autopilot.
What's great about rules is twofold:
1. The decision is already made ahead of time – I eat salads every day for lunch, I don't eat snacks and watch TV at the same time, and I never send the first draft of an angry email – so you don't have to waste any finite willpower calories.
and
2. For some unforsaken reason, other people (the greatest derailer of your good habits in the entire world) tend to accept your rules but question your decisions (nod to Shane Parrish). When my wife and I did random date nights every week, people complained that we weren't being social enough. When we made a rule that we have date night every Friday, people accepted and even supported our "commitment to one another."
Bizarre, I’m aware.
4. Create Personal SOPs
SOP stands for "Standard Operating Procedure" – if you didn't know, you're welcome – and it's the most powerful tool organizations use to ensure work is done consistently and effectively. These simple, step-by-step processes ensure behaviors are done repeatedly, no matter who retains the role. And spoiler alert: they work.
It turns out that adults love paint-by-numbers activities, too.
When I work with clients, I help them build Personal SOPs. Step by step processes that they follow to help them be at their best consistently.
Think about a behavior that derails you every week. You know it's not good for you. You know it's not particularly enjoyable (looking at you, work happy hour). Yet you do it anyway. What step-by-step framework can you set up to avoid (or limit) those behaviors?
Here's one that Angry Danny always appreciates:
1. Boo. Danny Angry at Work
2. Open a word doc
3. Write out a temper tantrum
4. Take 24 hours and a workout (if possible. If not, at least walk away)
5. Rewrite the email in a kinder way (neither passive-aggressive nor aggressive-aggressive)
6. Ask yourself “Would future Danny be proud of this email?”
7. Send without regret
8. Search pantry for Lays Wavy Chips