How Your Habits are Formed

Ever wonder how your habits are formed? Let me explain.

The striatum part of the basal ganglia (in the brain) is the seat of habit formation, control, and execution. It uses less processing power when compared to the prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of conscious action. 

So, the first few times you complete an action, your brain uses the prefrontal cortex. That is how and why you can pay utmost attention the first time you drive. But you cannot keep the prefrontal cortex engaged indefinitely, or it will take a toll on other important actions you also need to perform. So, the brain quickly notices your most frequent actions and stores them in the basal ganglia as habits. That means you can complete them without expending too much mental energy.

Another way to look at this is that actions create a neural pathway in the brain. Think of making a footpath along a bush in a park. The first time you tread on that bush to create a shortcut, you’ll leave a little impression on the grass. But if you continue to walk that same route daily, you’ll soon notice that a path begins to form. The more you pass that route, the clearer the path becomes. If you also quit, the grass will regrow to erase the path you have created. That is the same thing that happens with habits.

The first time you perform an action, it leaves a minimal impression on your brain. It does not register as a habit at all. In fact, it will probably require the same mental effort the second time as the first. However, as you repeat the action, the pathway it created gets retraced and clearer in the brain. Soon, it becomes clear that you will need little effort to follow the neural pathway and recreate the action. If you also stop performing the habit, the weeds of inaction grow to cover the clear neural path you had created initially.

With this in mind, it is clear that the way to create new habits is through consistency and the right rewards. If you can perform an action consistently, your brain will soon register it as a habit. It doesn’t matter how hard the action is. Your brain will file it as a habit and try to simplify its execution.

If you can also attach a reward to a habit, it will be easier to make its repetition consistent. The clearer you can connect the habit and the reward, the more significant the habit will likely become.

This article is an excerpt from the book “Change Your Habits - Transform Your Life.”