Change habits with Pattern Interrupts
Pattern Interrupts
I want to teach you a practical technique that you can use whenever an old habit rears its ugly head.
You can make all the plans in the world, but sometimes old habits have a way of reasserting themselves in your life. It’s frustrating. Even if you have all the right frameworks and attitude in place, old habits can still challenge you.
That’s why it’s good to have techniques in place that you can use to tackle them on the spot.
Hey, there’s a reason why they say “old habits die hard.”
But old habits can die, and if you use this technique, it doesn’t even have to be that hard.
What are habits?
First, let’s define what a habit is. When you understand habits, you can demystify them and take away their power.
So what exactly is a habit?
The simplest definition is this: a habit is a brain-based response to an external problem.
Okay...what does that mean?
All this means is that over time your brain has learned simple effective solutions to the issues that confront you in life. Your brain turned these into habits as responses to typical problems.
Habits work on the “if/then principle.” If a certain problem or stimulus arises, then you apply a practical solution.
If this, then that.
If that solution works, then the next time you see a similar problem, your brain applies the same solution. This is how the brain works, and it’s even how a lot of computer programming operates.
Your brain learned to respond to certain problems over and over again until it formed what we know of as a habit. And by doing it over and over again, your brain has formed this habit at the neural level.
But it’s crucial to realize that every habit is a solution.
This can be easy to lose sight of, because we think of habits in terms of things we want to change, whether that’s something good or bad. But once you understand that habits got their start as an effective solution to a problem, then the means of changing a habit becomes much more clear.
All habits “work” because all habits are solutions. Even the bad habits that you would rather get rid of still work, because they were a solution that your brain employed at some point to solve a specific problem.
Wait...how can a bad habit be a solution that works?
Even bad habits work
Let’s take an example. Say you have a habit of biting your fingernails. You think it’s unattractive, so you decide to stop.
But it’s hard to do that. You can’t seem to make yourself stop what you perceive to be a bad habit. (Remember, old habits die hard! Why is that, I wonder?)
Now there’s no such thing as a good or bad habit. Habits are just things that you do. But you think that nail biting is a bad habit, and you perceive it as something that you want to stop. So how was this habit ever a solution?
It’s possible that a person developed a habit of biting their fingernails as a way to relieve stress. We experience stress and anxiety on a physical level in our bodies. So naturally, we develop coping mechanisms in order to divert that nervous energy.
Maybe you started biting your nails as a way of diverting your physical energy and relieving the stress from certain situations. If it happened when you were very young, you might not even remember it.
But your brain remembered. And it laid down neural pathways to fire as a response every time the same problem presented itself. YIn other words, your brain created a habit that originated as a very successful coping mechanism.
The only problem is that now you don’t need to handle stress the same way, so the connection is lost. But your brain is still trained to respond that way, so the habit remains, even if it doesn’t serve an obvious purpose.
Lindy effect?
Old habits die hard because they’re successful.
You may want to change a habit, but you first need to realize that the habit started as a way to solve a problem. The problem may be gone now but the habit remains.
And once you understand the habit and its power, you’re able to demystify it and deflect that power.
Deflect old habits
But what do you do when you’re confronted with an old habit that doesn’t serve a purpose for you anymore?
This is where you can use what I call PATTERN INTERRUPTS.
In order to stop that pattern or habit for good you have to create NEW neural pathways in the brain that lead to the desired result.
You can do this very easily by CONSCIOUSLY stepping in and interrupting the pattern while it’s activated. Remember that even though our habits are formed at the level of the subconscious, your conscious mind can still play a role. And you actually do need to step in consciously in order to move your attention and interrupt the pattern.
The next time you find yourself doing something you want to stop doing, and that voice in your head pops up and you ask yourself “why am I doing this shit?” All you have to do is:
First) Acknowledge to yourself that the habit is a response automated by your brain.
Second) Say to yourself “I dismiss this habit.”
Third) Instantly move your attention to something else, whether it’s a new desired behavior, a happy memory, or simply a few comfortable deep breaths.
What this does is that it causes your brain to say “Hey, I must not need to run this program because my boss is telling me they don’t need it.” So it stops your brain from firing that neural pathway and will literally begin creating a NEW neural pathway responsible for the desired thought or behavior.
This worked for me
For me, I experienced increased stress that led to procrastination whenever I engaged in certain types of work. Once I started using pattern interrupts, I realized that this must have stemmed from an avoidance behavior.
Maybe I had experienced trauma as a child over a failure or some perceived failure. So my brain had developed a habit of procrastination in order to avoid work so that I could avoid failure.
Maybe this worked for me when I was younger. But now I’m an adult, and I have faith in myself and I can handle failures and setbacks. I’m confident enough to see these things as stepping stones to success.
Plus, I’d rather get things done. And procrastination gets in the way. (Don’t get me wrong, sometimes procrastination can be fun)! But this type of procrastination was rooted in unhealthy stress.
Once I started using Pattern Interrupts, it helped me to divert that energy towards being productive, and the stress that came from procrastination started to melt away.
Easy doesn’t mean quickly
It’s okay if you need to use this pattern interrupt multiple times over days, or even weeks. Focus on a new habit that you are trying to create, and whenever the old habit reasserts itself, follow the steps of the Pattern Interrupt and divert your subconscious and your actions to your new, desired behavior.
It may not happen immediately, but results will happen quickly and - if done consistently - you will forge new neural pathways to the point where the old external cue prompts the new desired behavior as the brain’s new habit.
Work with Anthony and hit the rocket fuel 🚀button on your success!
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