THE POTENTIAL OF HABITS
Health, or the lack thereof, is ultimately a result of the habits we have. These habits can either help us or hurt us so let’s discuss how to construct proper health habits and how to follow through on them.
HAVE A GOAL
Your habits are the systems that you put in place to achieve a goal. In this instance, we will be establishing a healthy habit to accomplish a health goal. Maybe that is weight loss, strength gains, decreases in autoimmunity, increases in brain function, whatever. Think of the habit as the machinery that is going to help you climb the mountain to reach your success but we need to know which mountain we are wanting to climb in the first place.
Goal setting is a whole other beast where we should be setting goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-specific). If you don’t know about how to set SMART goals, we whipped up a blog post for you that you can check out HERE Let’s assume that you have read the post and have your health goal framed up.
There are ultimately 3 pieces to the setting up and maintenance of a habit which we can summarize in the 3 R’s: Reminder, Response, & Reward. Gaining a grasp on these 3 R’s and how to incorporate them into your life will allow you to start developing the habits you need to become the individual you have to become to obtain your goals.
R1: REMINDERS/TRIGGERS
We at Action Potential love helping people create beautiful, strong brains. Even the best brains in the world can get caught up in the day-to-day responsibilities and trail away from a habit that has yet to solidify. This is why the first step of creating and sticking to a habit is the reminder. Of course, a reminder is something that reminds you to do a task but a reminder can be anything. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, has people go through an exercise called the “Trigger T-chart” like the one listed below.
Things that happen in your environment
Sun Rises / Sun Sets
A Stoplight turns Red
A commercial comes on TV/Radio
A package is delivered to your house
You see a Dog or Cat
Things that you do
Morning Routine (Shower, Brush Teeth, etc.)
Arriving at work
Eating food
Getting home
Washing Dishes
Bedtime Routine
On one side you put all the things that happen to you in your day-to-day life like the sun rising or setting, you getting a package, or seeing a dog or cat. And on the other side, you write down all the things that you do most of the time on an average day, like getting ready in the morning, eating food, coming home from work. Once you have done this then you will have constructed a list of all the possible triggers or reminders that you can link your new habit to.
This is the process of anchoring, where you take a process that is an already formed habit and anchoring a new habit to it. An example would be to do a 60-second meditation when you brew or order your coffee or after brushing your teeth making sure to Gag, Gargle, and Sing for vagal nerve stimulation.
R2: RESPONSE
Where the rubber meets the road. Once you have your trigger/reminder then you need to respond and execute the habit. There are a couple of tricks that one can use to help reduce the friction of completing the habit. For these tricks let’s use the habit of exercising as the backdrop to illustrate how to implement these techniques
RIG THE ENVIRONMENT
When the alarm goes off and you have committed to starting the habit of running in the morning. It is really easy to roll over in bed and snag a few extra Z’s if the environment is not set up for your success. In this example, getting your clothes and shoes prepared the night before & putting your alarm on the other side of the room will first reduce the decision-making process which requires energy and makes you get out of bed.
BABY STEPS
When people set goals and the habits that accompany them they usually set them way too high and bite off too much for them to chew. The amount of times I have heard sedentary people state the goal of running a marathon and then proceed to have an erratic training schedule is ridiculous. People want to run 26 miles never 2.6 but if they just committed to the 2.6 miles at first then they would bump it up to 5, then 10, and so on.
JUST START…
Now that you are all clothed up and ready to go the hardest part is starting. If your goal was to start running with a goal of running 2-3 miles then just start and commit to running the first mile. Once you have run the first mile, miles 2 and beyond are exponentially easier because you have your momentum behind you (physically and psychologically).
R3: REWARD
Arguably the best part of the habit, the reward is what is going to solidify the habit. The reward can either be internal or external.
External rewards can be useful in the beginning when establishing a habit but shouldn’t be indefinite. Let’s say after the run we spoke about above we had a ¼ bar of dark chocolate to reward our valiant efforts. In the beginning, this can serve as a dopamine crutch to help establish the habit but if you keep having the chocolate after every run you can see how this could be counterproductive.
Internal rewards are much harder to establish in the short run but more fulfilling in the long run. Internal rewards come in the form of knowing you are making progress towards a goal or becoming proud of who you are and the progress you have made by sticking to your newly formed habit. These rewards are much greater than those that we can get externally but both are vital for feeding a growing habit.
SUPPORTING YOUR HABITS
Determining what the habit should be, committing, and following through is essential on your journey not only in the realm of health, but also in finance, spirituality, personal development, and relationship harboring.
We at Action Potential want to see you thrive and want to help you out with every step of the process. Whether that is consulting you on your health goals and starting the process; eliminating barriers and helping you with the day-to-day execution, or serving as an external reward and growing your internal reward system. We are here to serve you.
If you or someone you know would benefit from our expertise and information, share this article. Also, email info@actionpotentialcenter.com and sign up for a free consultation call to see how Action Potential can aid in your health journey.
Health, or the lack thereof, is ultimately a result of the habits we have. These habits can either help us or hurt us so let’s discuss how to construct proper health habits and how to follow through on them.
Dr. Chase Davidson, DC is a Board Eligible Chiropractic Neurologist and specializes in concussion and sports rehab, as well as functional medicine and immunology. He is the Director of Neuroscience and Metabolics at Action Potential – Sports and Neurological Rehab. He also is a member of the International Association of Functional Neurology and Rehabilitation (IAFNR). Stay connected with Dr. Davidson on Linkedin: @dr-davidson / Instagram: @thatneurologyguy / Email: dr.chase@actionpotentialcenter.com
Visit us at Action Potential - Sport & Neuro Performance across our multiple offices across the Austin, Texas area. Call today at (512) 686-6611 to get scheduled for an appointment at our offices located in Lumos Fitness Collective, Defiant CrossFit, & Black Metal CrossFit
