CTM Episode 13: “How To Build High Performance Habits”: Part 1

In Part 1 of the How to Build High Performance Habits series Anthony and Isaiah dive into the foundation of what a habit is and how you can begin to attack bad habits. 

Habits are a routine that may be hard to give up and is in our subconscious mind.

The fact that habits are subconscious indicates that the majority of what we do every day is a habit. How we drive, how we eat, tying our shoes, when we do things, how we do things, our routines are all habits.

Our minds have to make habits in order to simplify the world and our decision making process. Habits allow us to think about more important things while our body performs medial tasks. However, if we leave our mind to make habits without any direction from us it often forms bad habits. Why is this? The answer lies in what a habit is.

A habit consists of a three part cycle: a cue, a routine, and a reward.

The cue initiates the routine (what we typically think of as the habit), and then our brain releases dopamine as the reward. If the cycle is repeated enough times our brain will store that habit in our subconscious mind. The issue is that a lot of things that are bad for us cause our brains to release dopamine such as sugar, watching TV, or social media. So we have to take an active role in forming our habits. 

The rate at which habits are formed is dependent on the number of times the cue, routine, reward cycle is performed. The more often it is performed the faster the habit will take hold. 

We will discuss how to use this information to form new habits and break bad habits in next weeks episode, but for now you should practice identifying the cues to your current habits. You can do this through mindfulness meditation. After some practice you will be able to detach from your thoughts in everyday life and evaluate what is happening within your head and access why it may be happening. 

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