One thing that all people—not just kids!—have trouble with is habits.
We all have trouble forming good habits
We all have trouble getting rid of bad habits
Why?
Habits are all in your brain
First of all, let’s understand what a habit is. A habit is a pathway in your brain that’s nice and comfy and slick like a Slip-n-Slide on a hot summer day. Your brain jumps on that habit pathway without any conscious thought.
If we didn’t have habits, we’d have a hard time getting through a day.
Imagine if you had to think about how to walk every time you needed to walk across a room!
Imagine if every time you were hungry you had to think about where the refrigerator is!
Life would be a little crazy—and much more difficult—without habits.
Habits are easy to form…
Brain scientists say that you can form a habit just by doing something three times the same way!
…and hard to break
Brain scientists say that it takes conscious, sustained effort to break a habit that we’ve formed.
Tips for forming a new, good habit
Let’s start with a pleasurable activity, maybe one you wish you had time to do more. For example, maybe you want to do more drawing, but you never feel like you have enough time. Here are the steps:
Identify the habit you want to form: we’ll set an example goal of spending at least a half an hour on one new drawing a week
Find a way to remind yourself to do it: create a calendar reminder on your device or ask your parent to support you by reminding you
Think of a “trigger”: choose something you always do every Sunday, such as eat lunch or go to Sunday school—you’ll have drawing time right afterwards
Make sure to do it at least 3 times in a row, maybe more: DO NOT let yourself off the hook
The funny thing is, once you’ve done this a few times, it will start to feel “wrong” if you don’t do it. Note: It might take you longer to form a new habit that you don’t really want to form! That’s why we practiced with something fun.
Tips for breaking a bad habit
Identify the habit you want to break: for example, chewing on your fingernails
Identify the “trigger” for that habit: do you always chew them while reading? while in the car? when you’re nervous?
Think of something else you could do: hold a fidget toy while reading, or practice deep breathing when you get nervous
Enlist someone else’s help: ask your parent or a friend or sibling to say a code word—make it silly!—if you fall back into the habit
Keep at it! Remember: breaking habits is harder than forming them.
Be nice to yourself!
It’s hard to form new good habits—that’s true for all of us!
It’s hard to break old bad habits—that’s true for all of us!
Have patience with yourself and keep working on it.
