Ways To Change a Habit (Part 1)

Consider a new way to think about the world habit. Imagine for a moment that many of our most troublesome problems and even our most basic traits are just habits.

That expanding waistline that is being blamed on a spouse’s cooking – maybe that’s just a habit called overeating.

That fit of rage that a student blames on a teacher – maybe that’s just the student’s habit of closing the door to new ideas.

Procrastination, stress, and money shortages might just be names that we give to collections of habits – scores of simple, small, repeated behaviours that combine to create a huge result. The same goes for health, wealth, love, and many other things that we want from life.

One way of thinking about success is to focus on habits. Behaviours such as failing to complete reading assignments or skipping class might be habits leading to an outcome that “couldn’t” be avoided – dropping out of school.

When you confront a behaviour that undermines your goals or creates a circumstances that you don’t want, consider a new attitude: It’s just a habit. And it can be changed.

Thinking about ourselves as creatures of habit actually gives us power. Then we are not faced with the monumental task of changing our very nature. Rather, we can take on the double job of changing our habits. One change in behaviour that seems insignificant at first can have effects that ripple throughout your life. If you’re an adult learner, you might gain special value from experimenting with new strategies for learning.

After interviewing hundreds of people, psychologists James Prochaska, John Norcross, and Carlo DiClemente identified stages that people typically go through when adopting a new behaviour. These stages take people from contemplating a change and making clear determination to change, to taking action and maintaining the new behaviour. Following are ways to help yourself move successfully through each stage.