2026-10-22: I found these old writings when I was cleaning up some stuff and added them here.
Read more…
I will be starting a series on habits.
Today I will be sharing my knowledge about how habits work. I have gained nearly all of it from reading a great book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It is definitely a recommended read for anyone who wants to change their habits in any way.
The Habit Loop
All of our habits are formed of what is called the habit loop. This consists of the following 3 parts:
- Trigger
- Routine
- Reward
Let's take a deeper look into each part.
Trigger
This is the thing which causes our brain to mark the start of a habit. On encountering the trigger, our brain recognizes the habit and commands us to perform the next part (the routine).
Triggers can be of five types:
- Time
- Location
- Previous event
- Emotional state
- Other people
Routine
This is the action that we take in a habit. This is many-a-times the actual thing which we call a habit, for example- eating a burger every evening, or going to gym everyday.
Whenever our brain detects the trigger, it commands us to perform the routine which has been associated with that trigger.
Reward
The satisfaction or joy that we feel at the end of each habit is the reward. This can even be a material thing for example after every completed workout we may allow ourselves a guilt-free milk-shake.
This is the part which strengthens the habit in our brain. On receiving reward, our brain releases happy-enzymes and those in-turn deepen the strength with which the habit is stored.
Whenever we want to modify any of our existing habits, this is the first thing which needs to be identified. We need to exactly define as to what expectation of rewards are making us do the routine.
Sometimes identifying the reward might not be as straight-forward as we think.