Around 40% of our daily routine is performed out of habit. It makes perfect sense when you consider how much time and energy would be wasted if we had to decide every day what to do, when and how to do it. With repetition, our brain develops a ‘shortcut’ so that we no longer have to think consciously about what we’re doing, and our thinking mind is freed up to focus on other more important things. Perfect! Unless, of course, some of those habits are unhealthy.

When it comes to those ‘bad’ habits, there’s another important factor at play and it’s a chemical in our brains called dopamine, which is released when we engage in something pleasurable. Whether it’s eating, drinking, shopping, gambling or checking our smart phones, that ‘hit’ of dopamine is immediately rewarding and so we are compelled to keep doing the behaviour to get more of the reward.

With all of this going on outside of our conscious awareness, bad habits can seem impossible to break. Here are seven effective ways you can over-ride your impulses and establish healthy habits instead.

1.      Practise mindfulness

Being mindful is like pressing a pause button between the stimulus and the response (i.e., your bad habit), giving you a moment to choose a different response when you are hit with a craving. Psychologists use the term ‘surfing the urge’ to describe how mindfulness helps us ‘ride out’ those urges without giving in to them. Try meditation or yoga.

2.      Create a new reward

When there’s dopamine involved, it’s important to come up with a new reward. No, you don’t want to replace one addiction with another but activities like exercise, music, or phoning a friend can be rewarding substitutes for your bad habit. A weekly massage, shopping trip or manicure can also give you that dopamine hit.

Avoid triggers that might spark cravings

3.      Know your triggers and avoid them

In the early days, it’s important to avoid the people, places and situations that your brain associates with the old bad habits. If you’re trying to cut down on sweet treats, don’t walk past the bakery on your way home from work.

4.      Recruit a friend

If you know someone who is also trying to break a bad habit, there can be strength in numbers. Set a goal together, hold each other accountable, and cheer each other’s success.

5.      Use repetition to your advantage

Pick a new behaviour to replace the old one and as they say, ‘just do it’. If you normally pour a wine straight after work, pour yourself into your gym gear instead and walk out the door before you give your mind any time to talk you out of it. Eventually the new pattern will become habitual and the old associations will be suppressed.

6.      Be clear about your WHY

Breaking a habit is hard so having a compelling reason for making a change might be the thing that gets you over the line in moments of weakness. Is it to be a better role model for your kids? To give you more years of life to do important work in the world? Make it powerful and remind yourself daily of your why.

5.      Expect slip-ups

Habits aren’t formed overnight, nor are they broken so easily. If you expect immediate success, any slip-up can feel like a failure and send you straight back to square one. By forgiving yourself for slip-ups, you’re more likely to get back on track quickly and eventually ditch those bad habits for good.