Break
Bad Habits: Rewire Your Brain in 14 Days
There's that certain something that you do all the time that you know isn't
good for you, but no matter how hard you try, you just can't reverse it. It
might be that you procrastinate, overeat, control everything at work, skip
out on exercise or chronically neglect relationships.
Whatever
it is, it's not only affecting your health directly, but also indirectly, by
causing you stress. Deep down, you know that promising yourself to change
one more time just isn't going to do it. It's too late for that.
Or is it?
Dr. Lee
Rice, Vistage speaker and authority in sports medicine, wellness, and
preventative medicine, certainly doesn't think so. He believes that to
improve your health, you first have to evaluate your life. "Only 10% of us
die naturally from old age in our sleep," he says. "Another 10% die
prematurely from bad luck. The rest of us -- all 80% -- will kill ourselves
with bad habits."
Once your
life is in balance, you'll experience reduced stress, muscle deterioration,
and illness, and increased happiness, flexibility, and self-esteem -- not to
mention a longer life potential.
But how
exactly do you turn lifelong bad habits inside out? How do you get over the
rationalization and justification that lead to small unhealthy decisions
that rack up toward an increasingly unhealthy, unhappy-about-it you?
Dr. Rice
says it takes as little as 14 days to "rewire your brain" or create new
brain pathways that make habits easier to follow, so the habits become more
effective and long-lasting. Will it be hard? Yes. But "the mind is much more
powerful that we've ever given it credit for," he says. "Wellness is an
integration of mind and body, and allowing yourself to change for the
better" is the first step. But you have to be honest with yourself. If you
define yourself prematurely, you won't be able to change the behavior.
How to Rewire Your Brain
Here's
how to increase your ability to change:
1.
Be rigorously
honest with yourself. You can only make changes when you accept yourself as
you are.
2.
Acknowledge that
you are who you choose to be, not who you were yesterday.
3. Know that it takes
about 14 days to begin to form a lasting habit. Those first two to three
weeks are the hardest, physically and emotionally. Give yourself the time
4. Write your life
story. Literally. Explain why you are the way you are, and how and why you
continue to convince yourself you can't change.
5. Write the truth about
why you haven't made changes and what changes are possible. Be honest. Take
care to evaluate the way you use language. If you find yourself phrasing
statements in the negative -- like "I can't" or "It's too hard" -- consider
how to rephrase these statements as things you can do and that are easier
for you to stick with.
6. List the life values
most important to you, and explore your purpose in life. Do your habits
align with these values and mission? If they don't, you'll likely experience
stress.
7.
Now write the story
of who you want to be. The truth is, people have tremendous capability to
change. Write down what it will take to get you to make those changes. What
will success look and feel like? How will you measure successes along the
way?
8.
Write down how you
might undermine these goals. What should you do to avoid these pitfalls? The
most common are 1) rationalizing, 2) denial and 3) minimizing the truth.
9. Announce the changes
you plan to make. Ask for the help and support you need from friends and
family or from medical professionals. Your commitment will be much more
powerful if you do.
10.
After six weeks, recognize that you'll probably
miss the benefits of your new habit if you stop.
11.
Celebrate milestones along the way!
The Benefits
An added
benefit to achieving your desired goals? "Your behaviors, your environment,
and your mind can influence your genes," Dr. Rice says, "by affecting the
proteins in your brain that turns those genes on and off." That's a powerful
comment, considering that we have 30,000-100,000 genes (no one knows
exactly), and seven chronic diseases have been mapped out genetically so
far. He's suggesting that continuing to challenge yourself to learn new
things (and avoiding substances that may "numb" your brain) will keep your
brain sharp, and happiness and satisfaction can help ward off diseases, even
if you are predisposed to them.
You can,
if you want to pay about $60,000, get a personal gene map and find out if
you are predisposed to any of those seven diseases. But it may be more
rewarding to make practicing healthy behaviors a habit, something automatic
that you don't even have to think about. Reach for that chocolate cupcake or
third beer? Wouldn't think of it.
Skip the daily 30-minute walk with a friend?
That would be like not brushing my teeth all day.
Healthy
habits can also influence you immediately. For example, your brain will have
better recall and problem-solving skills after you exercise. So if you're
facing a big problem, consider taking a walk or hitting the gym. But listen
to your body -- if you are experiencing aches and pains, daytime sleepiness,
or odd behavior, you may be pushing it too far.
Getting Over "Can't"
Dr. Rice
tells his patients who have really hit a wall either emotionally or
mentally, "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever
get is all you've ever got." It's a mouthful, but it makes sense. If you
want a different outcome, you must make a break with the past. You have to
be committed to succeed, just as you are with your business. Not just
interested, but committed. You know you're truly committed when you do it
even when it's not convenient.
Adopting
new healthier habits takes research, planning, nurturing, fine-tuning,
advice and counsel, support, execution, celebration when you reach goals,
and starting over when things go awry, just like with a new project or
business. What do you really want, and what are you willing to do to get
there?
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