The science behind building habits: how to make healthy choices that stick
Achieve your New Year’s resolutions with science-backed strategies
Building lasting, positive habits is crucial for achieving personal and professional success. Whether you're working toward academic achievement, career growth, or improving your overall well-being, habits play a pivotal role in shaping your outcomes.
Yet, as many of us know, sticking with new habits can be challenging. Statistics show that nearly half of New Year’s resolutions fail, often because most don’t fully understand how habits are formed or how to make them take hold. By digging into the science behind behavior change, you can learn to build lasting habits that work for your goals, whether you're a student aiming to improve your grades or a professional looking to enhance productivity.
How do habits work?
Habits are unconscious routines or rituals you perform almost instinctively after repeated practice. They range from small actions, like brushing your teeth, to more complex patterns, like structuring your workday. These behaviors become automatic as your brain wires new neural pathways through a process called neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections.
Neuroplasticity happens passively, through repeated behavior, or actively, when you intentionally create new habits. According to Dr. Rick Hansen, author of Hardwiring Happiness, reflecting on how specific habits affect your productivity can help you rewire your brain. A learner who notices improved focus by studying at a set time or a professional who takes regular stress-relief breaks can build better routines through conscious self-reflection.
The habit loop: a framework for change
At the heart of every habit is a simple but powerful psychological structure, sometimes called “the habit loop.” This framework was first introduced by MIT researchers to explain how habits form and how they can be changed. The habit loop consists of four stages: cue, craving, response, and reward.
Cue: The trigger that starts the habit, like hearing an alarm that prompts your morning routine.
Craving: The desire for a specific outcome, such as wanting to feel energized after waking up.
Response: The action taken to satisfy the craving, like making coffee to combat morning fatigue.
Reward: The positive result that reinforces the habit, such as the energy boost from drinking the coffee.
When repeated enough times, this loop solidifies a habit in your brain, making it easier and more intuitive. It’s important to note that the loop affects both positive and negative habits. For example, when you're stressed at work, you might crave a moment of relief, which leads you to scroll through social media (response) to relax (reward). Over time, this negative loop reinforces the undesirable habit.
However, you can use the same framework to build healthy habits. Instead of reaching for your phone when you feel stressed, you might replace it with a 10-minute walk or a short meditation. The key to making this work is identifying the cues that trigger unwanted behaviors and replacing them with healthier responses that lead to positive rewards.
Science-backed strategies for building healthy habits
Forming positive habits that last requires more than just willpower. It takes intentional effort, reflection, and consistency. Here’s how you can leverage the habit loop to create healthy, goal-supporting behaviors:
Identify the cue: Recognize what triggers your habit—it can be anything from a specific feeling to the time of day—and how it shapes your response. For example, feeling overwhelmed may cause unhealthy responses, like comfort eating.
Replace the response: Choose a positive action to replace the old habit. If stress makes you snack, try a walk or breathing exercises instead.
Focus on the reward: Ensure the new, healthier habit provides a satisfying reward, like better mood and clarity after a short walk during a stressful day.
Start small and build gradually: Change one habit at a time, starting with small steps like reviewing goals for 10 minutes each morning before expanding.
Make habits convenient: Adjust your environment to support your goals, such as keeping healthy snacks handy or creating a distraction-free workspace.
Use accountability and rewards: Share your goals with someone and celebrate progress with rewards, like treating yourself after completing a study or work task.
Sticking with habits in the long term
Consistency is the secret to making new habits stick. Research shows it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit, so the key is to keep going, even when progress feels slow. Regular practice and repetition are the building blocks of lasting change.
Adopting a growth mindset is also essential. Instead of viewing setbacks as failures, treat them as opportunities to learn and improve. If you miss a study session or fall back into an old habit, reflect on what went wrong and adjust your strategy. For instance, if you skipped your morning routine due to lack of time, plan ahead and set an earlier alarm to ensure you follow through the next day.
As you continue reflecting on your habits and making adjustments, your brain will start to rewire itself, gradually cementing positive behaviors. Over time, you’ll find that these new habits no longer require the same effort—they will be ingrained as part of your daily routine, becoming the foundation for a healthier, more successful future.