The real reason it’s hard to stick to good habits

Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to stick to new habits? Specifically, stick to good habits?

The short answer: developing a new habit is something that is not currently in your brain’s “familiar programming”. As a result, your mind subconsciously rejects it.

The long answer:

1. Your brain rejects the unfamiliar good habits

By the time we enter adulthood, we basically run on subconscious programming – thoughts and patterns – we’ve learned for many years. Our brains have been trained to know that when X stimulus is presented, Y response is needed – except with A, B, and C. 

With this sort of subconscious programming running in our minds at all times, whenever something new – that challenges the old program – is introduced, your brain rejects it because “It is not how we are “supposed” to respond.”

Here’s an example:

Ever since Mary was a little girl, she’s always seen adults go to work, come home, eat and watch tv, go to bed, then repeat the same process every day. Mary knows these are not good habits, and she is now at a stage in her life where she does not feel fulfilled following this routine so she starts reading after work instead of watching tv. 

For the first week, she is super motivated and the good habits are easy to keep but after about 2 weeks, Mary finds herself watching tv after work again. Back to the same old habit.

She knows that reading will help her feel more fulfilled and contribute to her overall personal development. But it’s “too much work”. Her brain is not used to this kind of action after work so she slowly, subconsciously, makes excuses. 

“I’ll do it later” turns into: ”I’ll do it tomorrow”. Then turns into: “I’ll start again next week”. Until finally: “Whatever. I can’t be bothered”. She neglects the good habits she’s trying to develop.

Click here to learn how to stop procrastinating

Click here to learn HOW TO DEVELOP A MORNING ROUTINE YOU CAN ACTUALLY STICK TO

2. We like instant gratification

We’d like to think that we are very complex creatures as human beings, but in reality, we can be quite simple. We like to feel good and we want to feel good now. It’s as simple as that.

So when we pick up new habits (even if they are good habits), if it doesn’t make us feel good right away – even though it will be highly beneficial to us long term – we lose motivation to keep practicing the new habit.

Here’s an example:

Tom is trying to lose weight. He doesn’t have a lot of time to exercise so he decides he will simply do 100 jumping jacks and 20 push-ups every morning before he takes a shower. 

He knows this will take him only 5 minutes at most and so he embarks on his journey to lose weight and get fit. Tom also knows that he will have to replace coffee with green tea and replace burgers with chia puddings.

For the first few days, he’s super excited about the good habits he’s developing. He feels so proud of himself. He’s finally started living a little healthier. He weighs himself at the end of week one and sees that he lost 3 whole pounds! He is overcome with joy and he wants to continue on his journey. So he keeps pushing on.

However, by the time Tom gets to week two, something happens. He continues doing the same things he did in week one, but when he weighs himself at the end of week two, Tom lost zero pounds. 

This does not offer any sense of gratification. This discourages him and as week three begins, he only does 10 push-ups and 50 jumping jacks. He grabs one burger this week instead of his chia pudding and when he weighs himself; he sees he has gained a pound.

The good habits no longer feel good in the least bit. In fact, it makes Tom feel riddled with guilt. Tom’s brain subconsciously reminds him of the things that WOULD make him feel good. 

Instead of doing his 5-minute workout on week four, Tom takes a long shower. And slowly, Tom returns to his old habits because the dopamine surge from the instant gratification is no longer there.

Related read: 10 Effective ways to build up your self-worth and self-esteem

3. The brain protects us from things we fear may hurt us

Often, our fears aren’t obvious to us. Fears such as fear of failure or fear of rejection are quite common and often the underlying reason we cannot stick to a new habit. However, it’s not always clear that such is the case. 

The subconscious rationale is that if we fail or get rejected, we will feel sadness. Sadness is not a “good” feeling. Sadness “hurts”. Sadness triggers stress hormones. Your brain wants to protect you from that so it creates “logical” reasons you should just forget about it.

Related: 5 Tips To Being A Happier Woman

Here’s an example:

This one is from personal experience and it is something I am currently working on.

Lis wants to help others. She’s been through a lot and has overcome so much and she believes her story can help so many others do the same, but she needs to reach an audience. She knows that in order for her to help others she has to reach the people going through the things she has gone through. 

She has to network and actively interact with others. She’s quite introverted and does not like to put herself out there much but decides to actively make connections with people. She starts interacting with others and building a network. She feels proud of herself and decides to take it one step further by creating a YouTube channel.

Subconsciously, she starts doubting herself. “What if I give poor advice?” “What if I ruin someone’s life?” This is something that terrifies her. So Lis slowly starts interacting with people less and less. She makes fewer and fewer videos until she just stops. 

She privates her YouTube videos because she doesn’t want to ruin anyone’s life. The habit of putting herself out there and interacting with others slowly becomes a thing of the past. Her brain has “successfully protected her from failing or being rejected”.

4. We are trying to be perfect

We often give up on mastering a new habit because we are trying to be perfect. So when we don’t see the exact perfect result we are looking for, we think it’s not worth the effort.

I believe the sooner we can identify these weaknesses in our personalities, the sooner we can start developing self-discipline. We have to understand that self-discipline will not always result in instant gratification. 

Above all, we have to learn to experience the journey and not focus solely on the end goal. See the end goal as a guide to where you’re going, but live for the journey. Understand that we are not perfect so we will falter along the way. But as long as we get back up and keep pushing, we are still winners.

Developing and sticking to good habits takes time and practice, but we can do successfully it if we accept that we should never strive for perfection. We should instead strive for excellence.

Remember, sharing is caring so don’t forget to share this article with others who would find this helpful. You can also join the discussion in my Facebook group or leave your comments below. I would love to hear from you.

—Cheers! ✌