Every habit/behavior (whether of man or of animal) is made up of a simple 3-step pattern. I call this the “ABC Cycle of Habits” and it goes this way…
- Antecedent (the trigger that initiates the behavior. Some people refer to this as the “Reminder” or “Cue”)
- Behavior (the action you are carrying out at a given time. Some people refer to this as the “Routine” or “Action”)
- Consequence (the benefit you are going to get from the doing the behavior. This is also referred to as the “Reward”).
Even in your day-to-day activities, we see the same thing playing out.
For example, when you hear your phone ringing, here’s what happens:
Antecedent: Phone rings
Behavior: You answer the phone
Consequence: You found out the reason why the person called you.
Ultimate result: You develop the habit of always picking up your phone every time it rings
Here’s still another one
Antecedent: Children making noise beside you in a movie theater
Behavior: You change your seat
Consequence: Children’s noise no longer distracts you from the movie
Ultimate result: You develop the habit of changing your seat anytime you see noisy children in the cinema.
And the list goes on and on and on….
How The “ABC Cycle of Habit” Can Help You Quit Destructive Habits
When many people try to change their habits, they make the erroneous choice of trying to exercise more self-control or trying to build up their willpower. However, going through this route is often an exercise in futility and such individual would only end up being frustrated with beckoning on self-control and willpower every time. Right now, I am going to share with you 3 steps to using the “ABC Cycle of Habit” to shatter destructive habits once and for all…
Identify The Behavior You Want To Change
This is obvious enough. As you must have understood by now, to understand a habit, you need to identify the components of the habit cycle. Once you have identified the ABC Cycle of Habit powering your undesirable behavior, you can gradually start replacing older undesirable routines and behaviors with more desirable ones. For instance, assuming you are addicted to watching pornography (behavior), what kind of factors trigger you to search the internet to watch porn? Is it the feeling of boredom? Or that of loneliness? Then, you’d also need to ask yourself what is the reward you are seeking from such routine? Is it excitement? Relieve from stress? Freedom from boredom? Once you have been able to identify these components, it becomes easier to break down destructive habits and build up better ones.
Manipulate The Antecedents And Identify The Consequences
Granted, although we are familiar with what makes up the ABC Cycle of Habit, in the real world, everything is not so clear at first. This explains why so many people are still held captive by their destructive addictions. The only way you are truly going to identify the breakdown of your habit cycle is to experiment a lot. Assess different antecedents to find out what exactly triggers you into performing a habit. Again, using the porn addict’s example, different things may trigger his habit of surfing the net for porn. It could be boredom, stress, loneliness and many other kinds of antecedents. Use the following classification of antecedents to aid you: location, time of the day, emotional state, as well as the kind of people around you. You also want to pay attention to what you feel after you engage in the problem behavior to identify the real consequences you were really seeking for. Repeat this process of identifying your cues day to day until you can diagnose the ultimate cue that drives you towards your habit. Yes, while you are experimenting, you may fall back into the habit for a while, but it is essential not to beat yourself up for this because while prior, you had been held captive to the habit without any form of self-awareness, now, you are much more aware and more sensitive to the constituents of your habit loop. This would undoubtedly set you up for victory!
Follow Through With A Definite Strategy
Once you have identified the consequences and reward driving your behavior, the cues and antecedents that trigger it, as well as the behavior, by planning and manipulating the antecedents, you can change your behavior to a better one that delivers the same reward you are craving! For instance, in the example of the porn addict that has realized that he is more susceptible to watching porn when he is lonely (antecedent), he understands that he craves freedom from the loneliness (consequence), so he can replace the behavior of watching pornography with the new one of going out to see some friends. Similarly, the individual who wants to improve on his diet (new behavior) can get rid of all junk food in his apartment (antecedent), remove change from his pocket at work so as not to be tempted with buying junk food (antecedent), cook his healthy meal and bring them to lunch so as not to be tempted with buying junk food (antecedent). As a result, he would have a healthier body and mind (consequence)
Finally…
Sheer muscle and mere willpower do not have the ability to cause any long lasting changes in your habits. The way to leading a life of fullness and fulfillment is to tap from the wealth of power trapped up within your inner man and set yourself up by establishing systems and strategies that would help you succeed.
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