Habit Building Is Simple. Just Apply These 4 Laws...

Building a good habit is typically thought of as a difficult experience. But it doesn’t have to be. There are 4 laws of habit building. They are simple to learn and can be applied to any habit you want to build. Once you learn these laws, you’ll be able to build habits that stick. You’ll be able to build habits that work for you. And it’ll be easy for you to do the habits.

Why is habit building important?

Building good habits is important because they create freedom. A common misconception among people is that habits restrict your freedom. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, having good habits locked in allows you to live the life you want to live.

Good habits allow you to work towards your goals, without really thinking about them. Habits allow you to do tasks automatically. The more you do it, the more efficient you become at it.

You won’t need to think about what you need to do… your unconscious mind will handle the thinking. This allows you to focus your mind on other things. By freeing up your mind, you can think more creatively.

By thinking less about your goal, it becomes easier to actually achieve it. Why? Because you won’t be stressing yourself out about the goal itself. You’ll be engaged in the process that it takes to get to these goals… by building habits. Your mind will be freed up to think about other things, which will relieve the stress your goal places on you.

Your habits are important because they are what helps you become the person you want to be. They are what helps you create the deepest beliefs you have about yourself. Like the old saying, “You are what you eat,” you are your habits.

So, what are the laws of habit building?

There are 4 stages in human nature that cause us to develop habits. These 4 stages create a feedback loop. This creates an endless loop that repeats itself over and over again. The feedback loop constantly takes in information from the environment. It tries to predict what’s next. It tries different responses to see what happens. And it learns from the results. All habits go through these 4 stages in the same order.

The stages of this habit feedback loop are:

Cue
Craving
Response
Reward

Each stage has a corresponding law to building good habits that go along with it. Let’s take a look at these 4 laws to develop a deeper understanding of the 4 stages.

The 1st law: Make it obvious

The first stage of the habit feedback loop is the cue. Your mind is constantly looking to find rewards in both your internal world and the external world. The cue is the thing that tells your brain, “This is a reward. I want it.” In other words, the cue is the thing that leads to your craving. Time and location are the two most common cues.

Once your brain notices a cue, the habit starts. The cue is meaningless until your brain interprets it. This means that the thoughts, feelings, and emotions you have will determine whether the cue is going to lead to a craving.

The 1st law of habit building uses your brain’s tendencies to look for cues to start the habit. If you make the cue obvious for yourself, then you’ll be more likely to notice it. This will make starting the habit each day easy.

Here’s an example of how you can make a cue obvious for yourself: Let’s say you’re trying to build a habit of running each morning. The night before, gather your running clothes, shoes, and other gear you may need. Put them by your bed, bathroom, or front door… somewhere you will see in the morning.

The 2nd law: Make it attractive

The second stage of the habit feedback loop is the craving. Your craving is your desire for the reward. It’s what motivates you to perform any habit. If you didn’t want to do something, then why would you do it? You most likely wouldn’t do the habit unless you were physically forced by someone to do it.

The 2nd law of habit building uses your brain’s cravings to help fuel your desire for change. Cravings are the sense that something is missing. A craving means you’re unsatisfied… something needs to change. By making a habit attractive, your brain associates positive feelings with it. It satisfies your cravings, leaving you feeling full.

Here’s an example of how you can make a habit attractive: Keep the habit new. Change up your habit a little bit every once in a while. Variety is the spice of life. It keeps your brain engaged and stimulated. Boredom is the killer of good habits. If you can find a way to prevent yourself from getting bored of the habit, it’ll stay attractive.

Let’s say you’re on a diet. Slightly change up your meals once a month or so. For instance, If you’re eating steak and potatoes every day for dinner, maybe switch to chicken breast and potatoes or steak and rice.

The 3rd law: Make it easy

The third stage of the habit feedback loop is the response. The response is the answer to your craving. It’s the actual habit you do. This can be an action or a thought. The response is what gives you the reward.

The 3rd law of habit building uses human nature to make your habits stick. Humans tend to do what is easy. Making your habits easy to do increases your likelihood of doing them. The more friction or obstacles between you and the habit, the less likely you’ll do it. Every single goal fails because it goes against the grain of human nature.

Here’s an example of how you can make a habit easy to do: Let’s say you’re trying to eat healthier. Remove all junk foods from your house if possible. Replace the junk food in your house with healthy food. If you can’t remove the junk food from your house, then put it out of sight or in difficult places to reach. This decreases the likelihood you’ll eat unhealthy foods. It’ll be easy for you to choose the healthy option because it’s right in front of you.

I wrote about another way to build good habits in a previous blog post. This post details the two-minute rule, which helps make your habit easy to do. Check out the post here.

The 4th law: Make it satisfying

The fourth stage of the habit feedback loop is the reward. The reward is why we do the habit. We seek rewards because they satisfy us and they teach us things. The reward is what we want from the habit.

The 4th law of habit building uses our desire for rewards to help us build good habits. If you give yourself an immediate reward for doing a good habit, then you’ll want to repeat the habit. If a habit feels good, then we’ll continue doing it. We avoid things that are boring, painful, and unsatisfying.

Here’s an example of how you can make a habit satisfying: Let’s say you’ve been building a running habit. After every week of consistent running, give yourself a small reward. Buy yourself a new piece of workout clothing, a new water bottle, or change up your running route the next day as a reward for your consistency.

Habit building is the key to accomplishing any goal

The first 3 laws of building good habits increase the likelihood that you’ll do the habit. The 4th law increases the likelihood of you repeating the habit.

If you build good habits now, you’ll get more of what you want in the future. You’ll set yourself up for success.

Building good habits is easy if you use human nature to your advantage. Use the 4 laws of building good habits and watch how easily you reach your goals.

References:

Clear, James. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. Avery Publishing Group, 2018.