Our Habits – Our Brain’s Shortcuts and SOPs
Three key ways to look at habits contributing to our default ways:
1. Habits are quick solutions that our brain offers to solve problems efficiently
Our brain processes an enormous amount of information every second of every day. It is impossible for it to do so actively and consciously, so it creates pathways and shortcuts to connect any problems encountered with the quickest and easiest solutions.
- Ex. When our brain registers sadness, it quickly looks for a quick fix: urge for chocolate – that makes her happy every time! Chocolate is certainly the quickest and easiest way to feel better, rather than going through full root-cause analysis of the sadness and fixing the real issue at hand, which likely requires way more information.
Our default brain will take us down the easy path each time – unless we intervene.
2. Habits are ‘shortcuts’ stored in our brain to save energy from making decisions
Throughout our life, we are faced with many of the same decisions again and again. We would not get very far in life if we had to revisit each of these decisions every day, so it creates pathways or shortcuts for itself that reduces the decisions to me made.
- Ex. Do I put coffee in my milk or not? We just pour it in or order it the way we like it automatically.
- Ex. Which side of the road do we drive on? Automatically pull out from the driveway in the right lane (in North America at least)
When faced with a familiar question, our default brain will make the same choice every time.
3. Habits are our Life’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
Most of us are creatures of habit. Even if we live wild and exciting lives, HUGE portions of our lives are on repeat. “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment” (behavior scientist Jason Hreha, Atomic Habits)
- Ex. We wake up, brush our teeth, get dressed, eat our favorite breakfast, etc. = Our Morning Routine.
On most routine days, we don’t give this sequence of events much thought or energy, it just unfolds UNLESS, we want to start introducing change to drive improvement.
