Continued from last post
Identify and Remove Cues
A quick refresh of memory and flashback, we talked about "cue identification" as the first step of breaking bad habits, this is because many bad habits are actually connected or linked to the triggers within the environment or emotional state. So it is actually essential to recognize this patterns.
So let us take a look at the common cues .
- Time:
Some behaviors are triggered by certain time of the day.
- Location:
This one is quite obvious, being around in a particular place might trigger you to actually commit a particular habit. Someone that wants to quite smoking should consider restricting his movement to beer parlors and locations where he is likely to meet smokers.
- Emotional State:
The way we feel can also trigger some habits, a bored person might form the habit of endlessly scrolling on social media.
- Social Environment:
Just like we talked about in the previous chapter , the people and environment we find ourselves can also influence our behaviors.
So the goal is to first of all understand and identify the cues, you can now either remove , avoid , or alter these cues in other to weaken the habit loop
An individual that has the habit of eating snacks during TV programs can weaken these habits by replacing these snacks with healthy ones or removing them entirely.
By so doing , you are actually reducing the temptations to engage in the bad habits.