How to Build New Habits - The Odd Angle (The science of Habit formation)

By THE ODD ANGLE - May 22, 2021

Understanding the science of Habit building.

Humans are nothing but a combination of a physical being ,a bundle of habits and attributes which accounts for a character and behaviour, thus to change or transform an individual we need to transform our habits.

Have you ever wondered why everyone fails to make a habit of exercising daily , losing weight or using less smartphone or leaving addictions such as smoking ,gambling and pornography.

Do you also take resolutions on new year for waking up early in the morning or going into the gym and exercising but every time you end up at the same position where you started?

Here is the science behind habit formation this will help us in in making new habits and leaving the addictions!

Any habit is formed because of three phases or steps

The very first step is

1.Trigger

stimuli ,which acts as an indicator for humans to begin a particular task.It can be any sensory reception such as particular sound or vision .

eg. Everyone of us gets triggered by notification pop up sound to check our smartphone, this is nothing but an indication to perform the task of checking phone.

2.Behaviour

The next step is behaviour

Basically how you react to a trigger whether you consciously decide to perform a certain task or not.

eg. When a notification pops up we may decide to use or consciously decide not to use phone,and it is under our control thus our behaviour decides whether a habit will be formed or not.

3.Reward

Last phase of habit formation is reward

It is the result which pushes us to perform a task to attain a particular price or a reward to perform a task.

eg. We may operate phone because it gives us dopamine spike or we may develop habit of taking chocolate because it rewards the sweet taste and which accounts for release of feel good hormones.