How Habits Work

 The difficult thing about studying the science of habits is that most people, when they hear about this field of research, want to know the secret formula for quickly changing any habit. If scientists have discovered how these patterns work, then it stands to reason that they must have also found a recipe for rapid change, right?If only it were that easy.It’s not that formulas don’t exist. The problem is that there isn’t one formula for changing habits. There are thousands.Individuals and habits are all different, and so the specifics of diagnosing and changing the patterns in our lives differ from person to person and behavior to behavior. Giving up cigarettes is different than curbing overeating, which is different from changing how you communicate with your spouse, which is different from how you prioritize tasks at work. What’s more, each person’s habits are driven by different cravings.As a result, this book doesn’t contain one prescription. Rather, I hoped to deliver something else: a framework for understanding how habits work and a guide to experimenting with how they might change. Some habits yield easily to analysis and influence. Others are more complex and obstinate, and require prolonged study. And for others, change is a process that never fully concludes. 

 But that doesn’t mean it can’t occur. Each chapter in this book explains a different aspect of why habits exist and how they function. The framework described in this appendix is an attempt to distill, in a very basic way, the tactics that researchers have found for diagnosing and shaping habits within our own lives. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive. This is merely a practical guide, a place to start. And paired with deeper lessons from this book’s chapters, it’s a manual for where to go next.Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. 

 Definition of habit

1. 1archaic : clothing 
2. 2a :  a costume characteristic of a calling, rank, or function a nun's habitb :  a costume worn for horseback riding
3. 3:  manner of conducting oneself : bearing 
4. 4:  bodily appearance or makeup a man of fleshy habit
5. 5:  the prevailing disposition or character of a person's thoughts and feelings :  mental makeup a philosophical habit
6. 6:  a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior her habit of taking a morning walk
7. 7a :  a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance the daily bowel habitb :  an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary got up early from force of habitc : addiction a drug habit
8. 8of an organism :  characteristic mode of growth or occurrence a grass similar to Indian corn in habit
9. 9of a crystal :  characteristic assemblage of forms at crystallization leading to a usual appearance : shape 
10. See  habit defined for English-language learnersSee habit defined for kids 

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Examples of habit in a sentence

1. It was his habit to take a nap after dinner every evening.
2. It's important that parents teach their children good study habits.
3. He fell into some bad habits after graduating from college.
4. It's never easy to break a bad habit.
5. He still gets up early every day from habit.
6. She always closed the door softly out of habit.
7. He hasn't been able to kick his cocaine habit.

To be continue...