2010: Making and Breaking Habits

Many people try to start off the new year on the right foot in vowing to (fill in the blank). Some are successful, others are not. Some may find themselves attempting to kick old habits that just won’t die, year after year.

That is the case for some ASU students. Instead of coming up with new resolutions, some are still trying to keep with the old ones.

Global studies junior Ethan Jeffers says his goals include trying to stay in shape, eat healthier and be a better person. But this is nothing new.

“I don’t really know if I’ve created any new ones, just trying to stick with ones I’ve made in the past,” Jeffers says.

Recent transfer student Chris Lambson says his goal was to go back to school. “I didn’t do an official resolution. I haven’t been to school in four or five years, so my goal was to go back to school this year,” Lambson says while waiting to go to class on the first day of spring semester classes.

Although Lambson, a computer science and engineering junior, was successful in getting back to school, quitting smoking has been an on and off challenge for him.

So what does it take to really break bad habits and to form better ones? ASU psychology professor Richard Lanyon says it’s all a process. Lanyon has done a considerable amount of work in the area of behavior therapy, which essentially helps people change undesired behaviors for a more desirable outcome.

“The whole trick in changing [bad habits] is to spot what’s triggering them and/or what is maintaining them,” he says.

Lanyon says once this happens, it is easier to come up with solutions of how to change it. “The first thing you have to do is be aware when you do it so you can do something about it when you do it,” he says.

Lanyon says the next step is to develop some sort of procedure to change it. He suggests finding some sort reward or incentive that will reinforce the desired behavior.

A few options may include:

• A chart to track progress
• Involving family and friends in the process to help with accountability
• Finding an alternative behavior that has less negative consequences to replace the bad habit
• Getting rid of friends or avoiding situations that enforce the bad habit
• Self encouragement
• Rewarding self along the way

Lanyon stressed it is important to find what works best for an individual personally because different things work better for different people, and it may include some trial and error to find what works best.

Some factors can make breaking a habit even more difficult including anything that induces a physiological reward, such as smoking cigarettes. Lanyon says it is more difficult because it is not just a mental thing, and the person will need to find something that will interfere with that physiological response in order to break it.

Lanyon also says if a habit has been in place for an extended period of time, it has become more a part of the person’s life and additional steps must be taken to overcome it.

Though habits can be hard to break, it’s never too late. Lanyon says once a person masters the process and figures out what works well for him or her, that same process and those same incentives can be applied throughout a lifetime.

“The principals are the same, it depends on the behavior,” Lanyon says.

Additional tips from Lanyon:

• Be realistic, just as saving money takes time and planning, so does making and breaking habits.
• The planning is important, but the implementation of that plan is equally as important.
• Ensure the goal is understood and is serving some purpose.
• Practice makes perfect — the same goes for habits. The more a person practices getting into the habit of doing something, the better he or she will become at it.
• There is no particular step that will ensure success. He says just as each part in a car engine serves a purpose or function, so does each part of the process of trying to make and break habits.

Sound Off

SPM spoke with several students about their habits, New Year’s resolutions and their tips on kicking bad habits. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Biochemistry senior Catherine Lee

• Lee’s resolution: “To have a better semester academically.”
• Lee’s habit: “Procrastination is my, kind of, Achilles’s heel, and I definitely need to work on that.”
• Lee’s tips: “Definitely, setting future goals … and just little things like study habits. Sometimes if I study by myself at home I get more productive.”

2. Global studies junior Ethan Jeffers

• Jeffers’ habit: “I used to bite my nails, but I got rid of it. It was rough.”
• Jeffers’ tips: “Surround yourself with good friends who help you out and look out for you as well.”

3. Sociology and family studies senior Jade Noble

• Noble’s resolution: “It’s my last semester, so study more I guess and be better about handling money.”
• Noble’s tips: “Setting aside more time for the study thing and then for the being better about money I haven’t figured that out yet.”

4. Computer science and engineering junior Chris Lambson

• Lambson’s habit: “Usually quit smoking is my New Year’s resolution but it hasn’t happened yet, but I tried to.”
• Lambson’s tips: Planning out the goal and how to achieve it.

5. Secondary education biology freshman Kirill Corte

• Corte’s New Year’s Resolution: “Lose weight.”
• Corte’s tips: “I have a little calender of things that I can eat once a week, twice a week, but I’ve been going to friends parties and gatherings, so I haven’t been able to keep up to it as well as I want to.”
• Corte’s tips: Keep a calender with you, and be better about scheduling things.

Contact the reporter at nicole.ethier@asu.edu

Tagged as: Dr. Richard Lanyon, goals, habits, Resolutions