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It’s a figure that even makes psychologists sit up and take notice: on average, we take our cell phone out of our pocket 214 times a day and look at the display. In most cases, it is not because we have received a message or want to look something up on the Internet, but because our brain tells us to do so.
Daily routine as an energy-saving mode for the brain
The brain tells millions of people to drink a coffee every morning. coffee every morning, smoke a cigarette after dinner, drink a glass of wine in the evening and more. And this despite the fact that we know that all this is harmful to our health. We call these recurring behaviors bad habits – but our brain loves them more than almost anything else.
The reason: automation saves energy. In fact, researchers have found that the areas responsible for complex thought processes and decisions stop working in routine mode. Conversely, this means that anyone who wants to change their habits faces one of the biggest challenges of all: they have to reprogram their neuron network and the brain’s entire motivation system.
“Between 30 and 50 percent of our daily actions are determined by habits,” says Bas Verplanken, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Bath.
Why do we find it so difficult to give up bad habits?
20 times per hour on the smartphone look at your smartphone 20 times an hour, drink five cups of coffee a day, bite your fingernails while watching TV: Everyone develops bad habits in the course of their lives. Our egotistical brain is to blame. “Confronting new and complicated things requires awareness, attention and concentration – which is why the brain to routinize everything,” explains Gerhard Roth from the University of Bremen.
The professor at the Institute of Brain Research has been studying the question of why it is so difficult to motivate people to give up bad habits for years. “Habits are cheap both metabolically and neuronally. Changes to structures and functions in the areas of feeling, thinking and acting, on the other hand, are complex and expensive in terms of metabolic physiology,” he writes in his book “Coaching, Counseling and the Brain”.
Get rid of bad habits
Getting rid of bad habits, leaving stored behavioral paths – we know from the findings of neurobiology that it takes at least 21 days for the old motivational patterns in the brain to be deleted. In other words, the biochemical update is completed and the old program is overwritten. This process works most effectively if you adhere to the following three basic rules:
1. be prepared for attacks
Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen has developed a success formula for self-motivation. The term WOOP stands for “Wish-outcome-obstacle-plan”. This means that if you want to break your bad habit, you should be prepared for temptations, obstacles and stumbling blocks (obstacles). This allows you to make a plan in advance on how to react to the dangers.
2. change the setting
“Habits are always triggered by stimuli from the environment,” says Bas Verplanken from the University of Bath. “And to make it even more difficult: It’s usually not just a stimulus, but a whole context in which the habit is embedded.”
This means that we usually repeat many everyday actions in a very specific setting: in a special place, at a familiar time, in certain moods or with selected people. It is precisely this setting that should be changed. For example, psychologist Wendy Wood found that smokers who wanted to give up their habit were twice as successful if they started on vacation.
3. search for a replacement routine
An effective way of reprogramming is to install a new routine program in the brain. So, replacing a bad habit with a good one. For example, you can replace a cigarette after a meal with an apple. Once you have managed to establish a new stimulus in the brain’s motivational pattern, the habit literally becomes self-perpetuating.
Just like Jan Frodeno, whose routine makes him go to the gym almost unconsciously every day. So that when it comes down to it, he is highly motivated for the competition – and can overcome his inner bastard. Just routine …
