The main reason your brain forms habits was a surprise to me.  I thought the reason would be a neurological masterstroke of evolution.  Complicated and difficult to understand.

It’s surprisingly simple.

Your brain forms habits because it’s lazy.

Well, not yours specifically.  Everyone’s brain is wired that way.

I’ve been studying habits and how to be consistent and improve my own lifestyle for a while now.   And, I’m committed to sharing my thoughts and insights with you, so that you too can learn about habits and implement strategies to change what you want to change in your life too.

I’m fascinated by neuro-psychology (why we do what we do) and brain science.  This passion has led me down such interesting pathways to learning.  Now, I’m putting my knowledge into practice.

I began looking at my own habits more closely.  I wanted to change some of them.  And, I soon discovered how hard that is to do, consistently and effectively.

Why couldn’t I stick to my goals?

Did I have no willpower?  Had my motivation left the building?

Was I simply too lazy to commit?

I learned that building a consistent habit has little to do with willpower, motivation or applying myself with diligence.

But, first….

What is a habit?

There’s many variations on the definition.  I like to think of a habit as:

“a behaviour pattern that is repeated regularly, often without conscious thought”

The reason your brain forms habits

This is where the lazy brain concept comes in.

Our brains are constantly looking for ways to save effort and energy.

Because, even though your brain represents a mere 2% of your total body weight, it uses up to around 20% of your body’s energy stores each day.  Have you ever noticed how exhausted you become when you’ve been concentrating or learning something new?

Like a recalcitrant teenager, your brain will make any pattern into a habit because it’s always trying to save energy.  It works a bit like switching to screen saver mode.  This energy saving mode has huge advantages.  It allows your everyday routines to run in the background, while allowing you to concentrate on the mental energy needed to create the big stuff, like saving the world, or writing a blog 🙂

Did you know that around 40% of actions you do every day are in this screen saver mode?   These are your habits.

Now for the good news

100% of your habits are still under your control.   And, you have the capacity to change any one of them.   Your brain has already formed many habits, but now you can learn how to create better ones.

Be honest – I’ll bet you’ve tried to change a habit or two, or decided to build a new habit yourself over your lifetime.

How did that go?

If you’re wanting to change a habit into a better one, or create a new habit to reach a target or goal, then getting to know your habits is the best place to begin.

Shine a light on all of them.  The great, resourceful ones.  And, the unhealthy, self destructive ones.  Own them.  Because they’re all yours.

Now you know the reason why your brain forms habits, you can begin to form new ones.

Bite Sized Action Step

One of the first steps to finding out if all your habits are serving you and who you want to become, is to work out what they are.

Grab a journal or a piece of paper and take a fresh look at your habits that are currently running behind the scenes.

Write down your daily routine habits you need to function efficiently (like your morning routine), plus the habits you’re possibly not happy about.

Then pick one, only one habit, that you think may be holding you back or you’d like to change.  Write it down.  Then work out your next step/s.

Because changing one bite sized habit at a time is the only way to grow and reach your full potential.

I can help you create consistent habits.  Here’s how:

1. Book in for a consultation (in Clinic, Zoom or over the phone) to get personalised coaching on changing any habit – Click here
2. Creating habits around eating the right foods for your body is a great place to start – Click here
3. Grab a copy of my Rebuild Your Life Journal for 5 simple daily journal prompts to ground you and get those habits and routines consistently set – it’s your daily reset button – Click here
4. Not sure what you need?  Book in for a 20 minute FREE discovery call chat with me – Click here
5. Sign up for my Newsletter for more consistent habit tips – Click here

With your consistent future habits in mind,
Catherine x