The secret to keeping up (or breaking up) a habit

Your current habits hold useful clues about how to keep doing the behaviors that help you and stop the ones that don’t. So, next time you’re going about your day, catch yourself in a habit, then get curious.

Let’s dive a little deeper...

Developing healthy habits is key on this journey. But keeping them up—and trying to break habits that don’t help you—is the holy grail. Habits are behaviors that have become so ingrained in your routine they’re automatic; you don’t have to think about whether to do them or not, you just do.

Paying attention to what happens right before or after the habit (i.e. the cue that triggers it, the time or place, how you feel, and what you’re thinking) allows you to recognize what keeps it going. That awareness gives you the chance to take steps to protect those supporting factors so the habit stays in play or, in the case of habits you want to break, disrupt them and stop that behavior.

Maybe you make the same low-Points®high-protein breakfast every morning after the kids leave for school. It works because you have a distraction-free 20 minutes to cook eggs and eat before work. Anything you do to support that (like keeping ingredients stocked and time blocked) helps you maintain the habit and gets you closer to your goals.