3416: The Biggest Reasons You Haven’t Changed Your Habits by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Breaking Bad Habits

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily. The Biggest Reasons You Haven't Changed Your Habits by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your host and narrator. Hey there, welcome back to another edition of Optimal Health Daily where I read to you from some of the best health and fitness blogs online. All right, and with that, let's jump right in and hear today's post and start optimizing your life.

[00:01:28] The Biggest Reasons You Haven't Changed Your Habits by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net. Like a chump, I struggled for years trying to change my habits. I started an exercise program or diet with unrestrained optimism probably a dozen times. I threw away all my cigarettes and tried quitting smoking about seven times.

[00:01:50] I tried waking up early, reading more, writing daily, getting out of debt, watching less TV, and failed at all of those. It feels horrible when you can't stick to habits and I constantly felt bad about myself. What I didn't realize back then, until I started successfully changing my habits in late 2005, is that it wasn't a matter of me not having enough discipline. It was a matter of doing habit change all wrong.

[00:02:17] I was making some big mistakes when it came to habit change, and once I fixed those mistakes, I got immensely better at sticking to changes. If you're struggling with habit change, here are some of the mistakes I used to make in hopes that it will help you too. 1. Not Changing Your Habit Environment We often rely completely on willpower to stick to habit change, but in practice, that rarely works.

[00:02:44] 2. Much better is changing the environment around you. Make it easy to do your habit by putting your running shoes next to your bed and sleeping in your running clothes, for example. 3. Or having lots of healthy food around you. 4. Writing out small steps you can take in your spare time to reduce debt. 5. Make it hard to do the things you don't want to do by getting rid of all the junk food in your house.

[00:03:09] 5. Setting up accountability with friends with a big consequence for missing exercise or eating fast food. 6. Put your TV in the closet or unplug your router and give it to someone to hold for a couple of hours. Be smart and figure out how to change your environment so your habit succeeds, and if it fails, change your environment some more. 2. You Expect Comfort Habit change is, by its nature, uncomfortable,

[00:03:37] but most of us want to do the same things we've always done and never be uncomfortable. It's why most people don't exercise, because they dislike the discomfort. If you allow yourself to be open to discomfort at least a little at a time, you'll be less likely to quit. Don't like running? Just do a little of it and be willing to push through a little discomfort. What you learn is that there's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable, and this becomes a superpower for changing any habit.

[00:04:07] 3. You Don't Start Small Most people are optimistic and try to make too big a change. There are so many reasons to start small with habit change that I can't even list them all, but let's take some of the most important. If you start small, the discomfort of change isn't overwhelming. If you start small, you overcome the problem of inertia and not getting started. You also overcome the problem of burning through all your enthusiasm or using up your willpower reserves.

[00:04:36] You make it impossible to say no, impossible to fail, if you start small. Some examples. Meditate for just two minutes. Just get out the door and run for one minute. Eat one vegetable a day. Or smoke one time less per day. 4. You Have Unrealistic Fantasies About the Habit When we start a habit change, it's usually because we have some kind of picture in our heads

[00:05:02] about how great our lives will be once we make this change. We'll be healthy and fit and sexy. Our lives will be uncluttered and simple and beautiful and we'll be happy. Unfortunately, changes in reality are pretty much never as we fantasized about, and so we become disappointed and discouraged. A better approach is to realize that these fantasies or ideals aren't true, hold on to them loosely, and instead to an approach of curiosity.

[00:05:32] What is it like to change? What is discomfort like? And how can I be happy in each step along the way instead of only when I reach my goal? 5. You Start Right Away I don't know how many times I threw away my cigarettes at a moment's whim, deciding that moment to quit smoking. What I realized is that starting immediately is a bad idea, because it meant I was taking the change too lightly.

[00:05:59] The habit change was a smaller commitment as taking out the trash, and as easily put off. Except that if I kept putting it off, it didn't stink as much as the trash. So, I learned a better way. Set your start or quit date in the future. At least a few days into the future. Maybe even a week or two weeks. My quit date for smoking was November 18th, 2005, and I marked it on my calendar, and it became important.

[00:06:27] I wrote out a plan, had replacement habits for triggers like stress, and being around other smokers, I set up accountability, and I read about it. The habit change then took on importance, and so I was much less likely to just drop it. And six, you don't have accountability. One of the best ways to change your habit environment is to set up accountability. Create a challenge and tell people about it. Set a consequence for failure.

[00:06:55] For example, I've asked a friend to throw a pie in my face if I didn't stick to a change. Join an accountability group. Report daily. Ask them to not let you fail and slip away. The accountability will help keep you on track when all the other things fail. If you can fix these habit mistakes, and they're fairly simple to fix, you'll be increasing your odds of success a dozen-fold, at least. These fixes changed my life, and I hope they change yours, too.

[00:07:29] You just listened to the post titled, The Biggest Reasons You Haven't Changed Your Habits, by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net, and I'll be right back with my commentary. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs.

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[00:08:57] Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last. Ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC. Dr. Neal Malik here with my commentary. I want to go back to the mistake today's author Leo began with. Leo said that one mistake he used to make was not changing his habit environment. Specifically, he found that making the healthy choice

[00:09:27] the easy choice was very helpful for him. For example, Leo recommended placing your exercise shoes next to the bed as a reminder to put them on and go for that walk or run. He also mentioned keeping nutritious foods around. And I would argue in plain sight as a visual reminder. I've ranted about how retail stores and even the apps we use already use this idea of changing the habit environment. This is why impulse buy sections exist at most retail stores.

[00:09:55] This is why certain items are placed at eye level when we're walking down the store's aisles and why there are end caps to those aisles, displaying products that are on sale at what seem to be irresistible prices. So let's use these same sales tactics to help us meet our health goals too. Let's put nutritious foods at eye level in our refrigerators and on the shelves of our cupboards. Let's move the foods that we don't want to consume as often on higher or lower shelves or place them in the back.

[00:10:24] Move the candy bowl from the countertop and replace it with a bowl of non-perishable fruit. And as Leo said, place those workout clothes in plain sight as a constant reminder. These small changes will help make healthy choices easy choices. So what are you waiting for? All right, that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for being here every day. Thank you so much for sharing this show with someone. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.

[00:10:54] Thank you.