Change Your Habits, Change Your Life
We all know that cultivating healthy habits can add years to our lives and may protect us from health problems as we age. We also know it’s in our best interest to kick out bad habits and replace them with good ones. Research shows that replacing a bad behavior with a good one is more effective than stopping the bad behavior alone. Sounds easy, right?
Well, it can be if you understand the three Rs.
According to Harvard Medical School, the three Rs — reminder, routine and reward — can help you break unhealthy habits and create healthy ones. Because all habits tend to follow this basic three-step pattern, if you can break down a bad habit into these components, you can identify what triggers that habit and, by proxy, what really needs to change.
The Three Rs
— Reminder: A trigger initiating the behavior.
— Routine: The behavior or action you take.
— Reward: The benefit from the behavior or action.
To put this in context, picture the three Rs flowing in a continuous circle.
Here’s an example of someone with the unhealthy habit of spending too much time on their phone:
Floyd is spending time after work with his family. A notification on his phone goes off (reminder). After he checks it, he decides to take a look at something else and pretty soon begins scrolling (routine). He soon discovers a whole new world of information (reward) and, in the process, winds up ignoring his family.
What Floyd needs to do in this example is ask himself, after he checks the notification, why does he continue to mindlessly search for new information? Was it because he was bored? Was he looking for the hit of dopamine that scrolling provides? Floyd should take the time with questions like these and examine what triggers the behavior. He should also make a list, looking for patterns throughout this examination process and self-discovery. At the same time, he should make a list of things that make him feel better than scrolling. This could include reading a book, playing with his kids or conversing with his partner.
Once Floyd learns his routine, the trigger for the behavior, and the reward that accompanies the habit, he can figure out what things need to be shifted around so he can break the cycle.
Habits arise through repetition and, in many ways, are helpful. Most of us already have an established daily routine that we’ve built to structure our day. Over time, the components of such a routine become more or less automatic and free up head space. This allows us to deal more effectively with everything else we encounter throughout our day. When a routine switches into unconscious action, it becomes one of the many habits that run our lives. By cultivating the healthy ones and working to eliminate the bad ones, we allow ourselves to live our best and healthiest lives.
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