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Habits are powerful…VERY powerful. Now, I’m not the particular type to be very routine, organized, or repetitive by nature since I’m very spontaneous – but I still have habits. When I became logically aware of habits, habit formation, and habit deletion, I started to recognize habit patterns within my own life. We all have habits, some big and obvious, and others very subtle and sometimes even unconscious unless pointed out by someone else.

The Dictionary.com definition of a habit is this:

“A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.

An established disposition of the mind or character.”

Now, something essential I’d like to point out in that first definition – “Unconscious Pattern of Behavior”

Why did I point that out? Very simple. Our brains are lazy. Without getting super Neurologically technical, “our brain is fundamentally a lazy piece of meat.” (excerpt from Iconoclast by Gregory Berns)

Our brains like to conserve energy, and habit formation aids in that evolutionary function of survival. The less energy we expend, the more we conserve, the longer we live – a program of our Reptilian brain that served us quite well back in the times of early humans. Nowadays, with the evolution of biology and the advancement of technology, we have great potential when it comes to choosing how we do what we do, and when we do it. Here is a quick breakdown of basic patterns involved in changing habits:

Initial awareness of habit pattern ->

Choice of pattern change, deletion, or formation ->

Implementation of previous choice ->

In time from consistent repetition, habit is changed, deleted, or formed. Roughly a 28-30 day process.

There are a ton of books that go very deep into the specific processes of the above formula that I have personally observed in my own life, one author of which is Tony Schwartz. I have to recognize and thank Eben Pagan for originally seeding the thought and awareness of the power of habits in my mind from my time working with him and studying his material (which I highly recommend).

Here is a video from Eben’s presentation at the Engage Today event in 2009:

Now think about that for a minute…let what he said sink in…

The inspiration for writing this post came from my personal experimentation with habits and a recent Facebook Status Update I had posted that went like this:

“By taking control of one key aspect of your life – no matter how big or small – you build the confidence and momentum to change the other aspects. Momentum is powerful! Choose 1 habit to change, get rid of, or create in your life and be amazed by your own results So what’s it going to be for you?”

To share with you my own personal experience recently in changing, deleting, and creating habits, I’m going to be straight up about some things that used to be embarrassing for me to share.

In that past few months, I have been successful in completely changing my eating habits, my physical exercise habits, and the most annoying one of all – biting my nails!

I have been eating 99% Paleo Style (which I’ll get into in another post), which has resulted in me burning off 9lbs. of fat in 2 weeks. I have formed the habit of regular gym exercise which has resulted in me gaining 6lbs. of muscle in less than a month. And finally, I have conquered the annoying, painful, and unsightly habit of nail biting…something I struggled with at a very young age, and only recently resurfaced as a nervous habit for reasons I’m still exploring.

You might be asking now, “Well how did you do all that?” and I’m going to share with you my exact process and approach to changing one of my habits.

The nail biting thing was a very subtle habit that seemed to just “appear” one day when a friend noticed me doing it. I had no conscious recognition of a physical action I was taking until it was pointed out to me! Kinda creepy to realize that, but let’s move on. From my friend helping me become AWARE of what I was doing, I made the conscious choice to stop. I didn’t like it, my fingers hurt, and having chewed up nails isn’t that attractive. Sounds easy right? Wrong. Even though I made the conscious choice to stop, I really didn’t, and then got caught in the loop of mentally beating myself up whenever I did notice I was doing it, which as Eben said in the video, reinforces the neural pathways of the brain associated with that action. Not cool.

From there, I figured out that I needed some intervention. If I couldn’t catch myself doing it, other people could. So I asked a few of my close friends that I spend a lot of time with to point it out to me when I was with them. Support from friends and family is a huge help in conquering habits. From the continued “pointing out” of when I was doing it, I started to see patterns where I chewed my nails a lot, and others where I didn’t. What was the difference? For me, it was mainly stress and slight anxiety. When I was relaxing, reading, hiking, doing fun activities, or even eating out, I never once bit my nails. On the contrary, during the last product launch I worked on, my fingers were bloody and sore. Aha! Now I was getting somewhere

From there, I was so fed up and frustrated (those emotions can be great motivators if channeled correctly) I searched online, found a resource for an all natural nail biting deterrent (that tastes absolutely horrific), and bought some. I received it in the mail, applied it immediately, and went about my day. I also posted a handwritten goal on my wall to delete that habit.

To break it down:

• I became AWARE of the habit
• I made the conscious choice to change the habit (delete it)
• I asked for support from friends and family
• I implemented a physical solution (deterrent)
• I put a visual reminder where I would see it often
• And, over the course of about a month, I deleted the habit!

The feeling of realizing you have conquered a habit that was originally unconscious is one of the most rewarding pleasures we have in life, yet so few actually get to enjoy it on a regular basis, or even realize that they can.

A little side note to add extra leverage in your own habit changing, choose something that once changed, deleted, or formed, will help you in the other areas. For example, if getting into great shape is a goal of yours, focus on creating the habit of building muscle at the gym. Building muscle in turn burns fat, which then helps you lose weight in addition to getting stronger. On an even higher level, the one habit of building muscle will affect your entire life! You will burn fat, increase strength, build your immune system, become more attractive, build more self esteem and confidence, and the list goes on. It’s a High Leverage Habit.

What is one habit you can tackle this month that will help change your life? Remember, habits come in many varieties, even though the ones I have written about here are physical ones. I recommend creating new positive habits over changing or deleting others in the beginning, depending on the situation. Once you’ve changed one habit, you’ll be so motivated and excited from the momentum of those initial results, that you’ll want to change another as soon as possible!

Make it fun, do the work, and don’t skimp on improving your life