How to Break a Habit: Steps to Break It, or How to Keep It While You’re Close to Fixing It (The Case of Wendy Wood)

Have you ever tried to break a habit, even though it has been difficult in the past? You might spend too much time on your phone, eating food that is high in calories, or over spending on online shopping. Experts say that if you skip a few steps, you will be able to break the habit.

It all comes down to the signals that lead you to act. The behavior becomes a habit when you do it in the same manner over and over again. If you haven’t yet read our story about how to build new habits, a lot of the tips in there are relevant to breaking a habit—with a few minor changes and added challenges laid out here, due to your history with the behavior.

It is more difficult to change the way you have lived if you have lived that way a long time.

“If you want to change a behavior, then try to identify what might be a trigger that generates the behavior,” says Wendy Wood, provost professor emerita of psychology and business at the University of Southern California and the author of Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick. “We tend to overestimate the extent to which our behavior is driven by our goals and desires, and we underestimate the extent to which it’s driven by habit.” Advertising and marketing can be environmental factors, as we see an ad and think it would be a good idea to do something, not that we are only thinking about it now.

The main problem people run into when reviewing their history of a habit, Mendelsohn says, is that they may not know what questions to ask or be honest with themselves about the answers. She says if you do that, a therapist can be helpful. Especially if your habit was established when you were younger. “So much of our experience of developing routines and habits is shaped by our families and schools.”

If you are about to set your yearly goals, stop. Chances are, you’re going about building and breaking habits all wrong, according to the experts—especially if you’re extremely motivated in January, but find yourself getting distracted or overwhelmed come February. Before we get into the specifics of how to start or break a habit that you’ll actually stick to, there are a few things you need to know.

Instead of ranking your goals based on importance, you can make a list of your goals. “When people say ‘I want to build better habits,’ almost always it’s three things,” she says. I want to exercise, eat healthier, and go to bed earlier.

Wood says that they’re trying to do many things in life rather than just follow through on New Year’s resolution. We focus on these things while we try to do other things as well on a daily basis, and our commitment to change gets sacrificed in favor of other priorities.

Creating a Habit to Retire When You’re Stressed or Tired: Some Tips to Make It Fun and Easier

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to make it easier to form a habit if you get stressed or tired.