Dr. Mac Powell on What it Really Takes to Change a Bad Habit

While change is inevitable, positive purposeful change can be daunting. For most people, dieting, giving up smoking, or tossing a bad habit begins with the thought that “if I only had enough will power, I could do it.” Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes more than fortitude to alter undesirable habits, and trying to fight yourself to change is like trying to hold an innertube underwater – the more you push things down, the more they’ll push back up. Consider the following thoughts on change before tackling well-established habits and behaviors.

Do you genuinely want to change?

Psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen shared that habit-transformation should always be a personal choice about improvement rather than something you do to please others. As a professor who trained clinical psychologists, I saw in my students that change in patients didn’t happen because a professional suggested it (even when the patient was paying for the advice). When your spouse tells you to lose weight or your mother tells you to date better partners you are more likely to experience resistance or defensiveness than the desire to change. And change must come from you. It must come from a genuine desire for something that is better on the other side of the effort it will take to modify existing behaviors. It must have the pull of attraction, and the push of motivation to move away from ingrained choices.

Here, Dr. Mac Powell, a Certified Mental Performance Consultant® by the Association for Applied Sport Psychology shares what it really takes to change a bad habit:

Hack Your Bad Habits for Enjoyment:

Inaction is a very inefficient method of behavioral change. Swap unwanted habits for enjoyable ones. For instance, trade binge-watching Netflix with walks with your partner. If you want to quit drinking wine each night, keep another beverage you love handy and pour it into a wine glass when the desire to indulge strikes. If you want to eat a pint of ice cream, eat something green and low in carbohydrates instead. But remember, don’t try to willpower your way through the process of change. If you resent the change, resent that you’re not getting to eat ice cream instead excited by the improvements in your health that are occurring, then you are likely to slip or fall back into old patterns. Again, there must be the push of motivation, and there must be pull of something better on the other side.

Set a Reminder:

Author James Clear suggests you set a reminder to encourage change. Not only that, but he states "a good reminder makes it easy to start by encoding your new behavior in something that you already do."

So, if you want to swap candy bars for healthy granola bars, place your new food goodies--this is the reminder--where you'll spy them at the right time. Should the urge to eat strike while you watch TV--something you already do--you're likely to reach for them.

Also, set a reminder for the long-term destination. The most successful clients I had used pictures of their desired future to keep them focused: pictures of themselves with a slimmer body, or lifting a trophy, or holding hands with the person they hoped to find and fall in love with.

We need new pictures and constant reminders to adapt.

Ensure Change is Easy:

If you have to stop at the grocery store and shop for ingredients every time you want to swap fries for a side-salad, you'll undoubtedly fail. There are going to be days where you won’t want to change, where delayed gratification simply isn’t going to sustain you in the moment. You have to plan for the changes, and be understanding when there are hiccups. Hiccups shouldn’t significantly impede progress. They should help you modify your behavior for future success (i.e. keep the refrigerator stocked with healthy food if you’re trying to eat better).

Guarantee Remaining the Same is Hard:

Sustaining change is often even harder than creating the initial change. Backsliding can happen gradually, insidiously. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard some varation of the following: “I’ve lost thirty pounds, so it’s okay if I go back to eating poorly once a week.” Again, if the pull of the old behavior is greater than the pull of the newly desire (or achieved) outcome, and there’s no push away from those old behaviors…you got it, the innertube example. There’s a reason why you behave in patterns, why habits form and hold. Long-term change requires reorienting your thoughts and feelings so that you are excited to change, excited to maintain that change, and excited to leave behind old behaviors. If you’re giving up chocolate and pizza this week but stockpiling chocolate bars and pizza in the freezer just in case, you’re probably not going to lose a pound. I encourage clients to never change, or even attempt change, unless they are ready to get excited about the uncertainty and discomfort that comes before you shed the thoughts and behaviors that have created your current situation. In some ways, Dr. Mac Powell stated, the process is only as difficult as you allow it to be.

Real and lasting change comes from the excitement of new possibilities, not the fear and suffering of letting go of behaviors that have become part of your established habits. Use the push and pull of motivation and a better future, and grow comfortable with the discomfort that the journey of change offers.