‘Our brain is always looking to save energy which is why it LOVES habits – whether they’re good for us or not!’
Delia McCabe
At the start of a New Year many people think about and attempt to create new habits.
We seem to sense that the start of a New Year will make it easier to start and stick to a new habit.
There is some evidence to support this belief. It seems that at the beginning of a new day, week, month or year, we’re more susceptible to making new plans and then sticking to them! (See ‘Milkman’ in reference list.)
Millions of dollars’ worth of books have been written about habits, mostly about how to create them with ease. And yet we still struggle to create new habits and stick to them.
It may be more helpful to first look at WHY the brain loves habits and then see if we can use that knowledge to make habit creation easier.
The brain is a lazy organ …
The brain is very sophisticated, and we know much less about it than we’d like to know. You may be surprised to learn about its laziness, especially if you’ve ever been awake with a very busy brain at 2am. It feels very far from lazy then!
However, the brain is our most energy demanding organ and uses upwards of the 25% of the energy we consume for its activity.
At only 2% of our body weight, this is an enormous amount of energy.
It also doesn’t have anywhere to store energy, so when our blood glucose runs low, it battles to function optimally.
Anyone recognize feeling ‘hangry?’ That’s the brain shouting for food!
This means that it is always on the lookout to save energy in case it runs out of it.
New habits require more energy versus old habits
Novel thoughts use more energy than thoughts you’ve thought before, and actions you’ve never done also use more neural energy than those you’ve actioned before.
So, the first time you do or think anything, regardless of what it is, your brain needs to use a lot of energy as neurons that haven’t yet formed connections need to do so for the first time.
However, something you’ve done a few times, or thought a few times, becomes a routine and a group of neurons are now loosely linked to each other.
If you repeat this routine regularly then those neurons form tight connections because ‘neurons that fire together, wire together.’
The brain likes routines because there is now an element of ‘automaticy’ involved, so it uses less energy.
Until next time you need to learn or do something new, when the brain must again use its precious energy to make new neural connections.
All change is brain change!
You’re changing the shape of your brain when you create new connections, which uses extra energy.
Let’s dispel an old myth!
Unfortunately, we never ‘overwrite’ an old neural pathway. We must start from scratch to create a new habit - we must consciously choose a new thought or behavior instead of the old habit we’re now choosing to not practice.
We therefore don’t ever ‘change’ habits.
We must create new habits and practice (repeat) them until they become as robust as the old ones and over time more robust, and thus easier to choose and use.
What has become a habitual, automatic thought or action, now needs conscious effort (neural energy) to be avoided, while we create a new neural pathway, a new routine, a new habit, that we’ve decided will serve us better.
WHY do you want to create a new habit?
It is important to know WHY you want to create a new habit. If you don’t have an important WHY then it is more challenging to stay motivated when it gets hard to stick to the new habit.
It may take some time of introspection to figure out what the reason is, but it’s worth the effort as you may need to remind yourself of that reason when life gets in the way of your best intentions – and desires to improve your life.
It takes 60+ days to create a new habit NOT 21 days
The 21-day habit myth began when a plastic surgeon in the 1950s, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, noticed that his patients seemed to acclimatize to their new faces after a minimum period of 21 days.
This observation was reported in his famous book, ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’, and was quickly adopted by ‘self-help’ gurus who forgot to inform their followers that the word 'minimum' was meaningful. This short time frame made the idea of habit-creation seem more achievable, enticing, inspiring, and motivating.
Yes, you do gain traction over the first few days of starting a new habit, partly from the excitement that creating a new habit provides, as the brain naturally enjoys novelty. It releases dopamine then, which increases motivation and pleasure.
However, keep in mind that it can take more than 60 days for a new neural pathway to become entrenched and become part of your daily life without expending a lot of effort, also known as neural energy.
‘The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.’
Warren Buffet
10 Ways to Make Your Habits More Sticky
Try to start a new habit at the beginning of a specific period – a new day, week or month supports habit ‘stickiness.
Look at the environment (context) in which you want to start a new habit and those in which old habits you want to extinguish exist, and limit exposure to the latter.
Stay disciplined for at least 60+ days AND use new cues AND contexts in relation to new habits to create a new routine, while removing ‘friction’ for the new habit and increasing ‘friction’ for the old habit. (See item 10 for more detail.)
Stimulate dopamine and serotonin release via healthy rewards for staying disciplined using an app or a simple pencil and paper tracking system.
Eat to maintain stable body and brain blood glucose so that you don’t resort to old habits simply due to a lack of neural energy.
'Stick' a new habit onto an already established positive behavior so that there’s less neural energy expended to create the new habit.
Go to bed five minutes earlier each night to get to the 7.5 – 8 hours sleep you need to ensure your brain is well rested – or get enough sleep during the day if you’re a shift worker.
Make homemade treats, like this light chocolate mousse on this page so you don’t feel deprived if, for example, you’re trying to wean yourself off cheap and nasty chocolate bars. {Note: This recipe is an excerpt from my first book, ‘Feed Your Brain – 7 Steps to a Lighter, Brighter You!!]
Don’t tell your family (or at least your kids) that you’re planning on making any changes, especially if they’re food related! Rather make small changes, consistently, so that they become established without anyone feeling deprived.
Finally, make it as easy for yourself as possible to start a new habit! Start by making any new behavior as enjoyable as possible.
Then, consider the role of ‘friction’ in creating new habits. increase friction for things you don’t want to do, for example, don’t have Tim Tams (a very popular Australian biscuit/cookie - substitute your own personal kryptonite)) in the house – force yourself to have to get into the car and drive to get them (increasing friction).
Then, reduce friction for the new habits you’re creating, for example, have healthy treats in your home, so you don’t have to exert effort (friction) to get to them.
In conclusion, be mindful of your neural energy levels AND focus on WHY you want to create new habits. And please don’t try to create too many habits at once – you’ll fail miserably.
Simply focus on a few changes, make it easy for yourself and soon they’ll simply be your new habits!
Happy New Year!
Here's a link to a download you can purchase at the Lighter, Brighter You! School, for making inexpensive, simple changes to your meals for the New Year!
Here's a link to an article about habit creation and using apps to track habit progress (cited 10 November 2022).
And another link to a more recent article about habit creation and tracking (cited 1 December 2023).
References and useful books about habit creation:
Clear, J. (2018) Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery: USA.
Duhigg, C. (2014) The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House: USA.
Fogg, BJ. (2021) Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. Harvest: USA.
Milkman, Katy. (2021) How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. Vermilion: London.
Olson, J. (2013) The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness. Success Books: USA.