Flex_ Do Something Different - Ben [9]
Habits of behaviour remove the need to consider everything that we do. Reaching for a seat belt whenever I get into the car is a behaviour that I am happy to have automated. So habits can be very effective. Indeed, they are the reason we manage so well on autopilot. They are the reason we can drive, play sports, get dressed in the dark, and do many things at once. They explain why we can survive in a highly complex world without being overwhelmed by choices. Habits may well even be responsible for why we see the world in a shared way despite the fact that our viewpoints are all so different.
But.
But.
But these habits also mean we spend 90 per cent of our waking time on autopilot. We sleep with our eyes open. Our brain – which apparently gives us a special place in the animal kingdom because it allows cognate thought – likes to fool us into thinking that we control ourselves. The conscious thoughts generated by our frontal lobes chug away in happy ignorance of the fact that much of our behaviour is going on under the control of the faster, primitive parts of the brain. Yes, habits rob us of detail and difference. Habits make us see different things in the same way and so are responsible for us often missing what we are not looking for, even if that would be really useful for us. People don’t spot the gorilla let alone dare to mention the elephant in the room! Much of the time this may not have disastrous consequences. After all we don’t miss what we do not know or see. But there are many situations when we would be better off if we ‘took charge’ of ourselves and woke up to the present reality. These include:
when our habits make us miss things that would be good for us
when we fail to make the most of a situation because we treat it as similar to previous ones (when it is not)
if we need to stop or modify an unwanted behaviour (e.g. being too assertive, hostile, fearful, irritable, etc.)
if we wish to give up something we are addicted or habituated to (alcohol, smoking, over-eating, shopping, etc.) and
if we need to change for the better in any way.
11. The myth of willpower
Habits are by their very nature tough, resilient and hard to crack. That is a simple fact, yet most behaviour change techniques simply ignore it. It is assumed that people find it hard to change because they do not have enough ‘willpower’. New Year’s resolutions are abandoned before the Christmas decorations are down, people ‘fall off the wagon’ and diets get dumped regularly. People, it seems, simply cannot summon enough effort to improve their life. In reality, as soon as a person’s guard is down, their attention wanders, or they bump up against an old habit trigger, and the autopilot nips in and retakes control. Then ‘willpower’ doesn’t stand a chance. Sometimes, if the person is not really committed to change, or is just too tired, habits will regain control very quickly. Research has suggested that willpower uses brain food – it soaks up a lot of our energy. It has also been described as a limited resource that tires like a muscle. In other words, it is not much help to us when we want to make positive changes in our lives. When we want to defeat the pull of habits, it regularly lets us down. In fact, we would go so far as to say there is no such thing as willpower. It is based on an illusory sense of control. One that for a short and fleeting moment fools us into feeling we are in charge of ourselves. But then it is quickly gone, leaving us with little more than a sense of failure. Behaviour-change techniques need to stop trying to harness non-existent willpower and address what really stands in the person’s way: their habits.
12. Becoming habit-free
Behaviour-change theorists tend to assume that people can get a grip on themselves and invoke that mysterious force called willpower.