We are what we do and 40% of what we do is habitual. There is a code that drives the pattern of all habits. Once you know this code you can create new ones and dismantle bad ones.
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Hi. John Paul Fischbach here, the CEO and Chief Alchemist of the Auspicious Arts Incubator. It’s Tuesday so we’re here with another Hot Tip. This week’s Hot Tip is the Power of Habit. One of the things that we believed is that true excellence comes from your ability to condition your body, your mind and your emotions. I bet that if you’re like most of us the condition of your body, your mind and your emotions is actually the result of some habits that you have.
One of the things that’s true also is we are what we repeatedly do. We are not great because we are virtuous and have a vision of greatness all by itself. We are great because we repeat behavior that makes us great.
The people who study habits know that 40% to 45% of what we do is habitual. It’s not choices. It’s just habit. How do we harness this great power of habit? How do we stop repeating behavior that keeps us away from being great? How do we stick with behaviors that move us toward greatness? The answer is changing, creating or eliminating habits.
Habit is a power. It’s a power that you can take advantage of yet for most of us habits take advantage of us. It’s habits that take advantage of our time, our energy and our money. Warning, warning, warning! In order to change habits, eliminate habits, create habits, we have to believe that change is possible. Fundamentally believe that you can change. We got that one.
Let’s understand the power of habits. The guru of habits is a guy by the name of Charles Duhigg. Look him up. He’s awesome. Like lots of what we teach, conscious awareness is the first step. Conscious awareness is actually that first step. Conscious awareness is that a-ha moment that sets our curious mind down that path of discovery and change. Here is the a-ha that I want to give you.
Have a look at this diagram. It shows the three parts that form a habit. Cue, routine and reward. The cue is that thing that happens in the environment that triggers that routine to happen. That behavior then creates a reward. The cue triggers a routine, the routine produces a reward. The reward is how your brain learns to repeat the routine.
What I want to do is focus on part one and part three, the cue and the reward. That means figuring out what in your environment is triggering that behavior and how you’re rewarding yourself at the end of that routine.
Let’s say that we want to change a behavior. We want to change a habit. We want to eliminate a habit. We want to come up with a healthier habit. It’s about the cue. You need to recognize the trigger and see if you can disconnect it from the routine. The cue won’t automatically trigger that routine. You’re going to disconnect that. You’re going to think about that and say are there other routines that are available or other routines that are desirable the yield the same or better reward.
If you find and build a habit you want to create a cue that also triggers a craving for the reward. Does that make sense? You want a cue that not only leads to a positive behavior pattern, runs a good behavior pattern but also makes you crave that reward.
Let’s look at the reward part. Habits exist for a reason. Even bad habits, they exist for a good reason, really they do. Our job is to figure out how to implement a healthy routine to yield the same reward. You know what the reward is so let’s figure out a routine that is healthier to get that same reward. If you look at the cue and the reward and you realize that all habits exist for a reason. There’s a cue that creates a pattern that leads to a reward. You’re on your way to understanding the real power of a habit.
Did you like this Hot Tip? Let us know and be sure to subscribe to the next one and tell a fellow artist about us. If you want real practical help and support to thrive as an artist check us out at the AuspiciousArtsIncubator.org.
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