Breaking the cycle

Undesirable habits can overtake our lives. They seem insurmountable and when we try to attack them head on we often find that we are fighting an uphill battle. Oftentimes, this is because the actual action we are trying to change starts long before that very moment.

Emotional eating episodes seem to just materialize. We find ourselves mindlessly eating sweets or snacking uncontrollably. We look at the aftermath and wonder what happened, pinning it on stress. In reality, the episode starts long before that. 

In prefer to properly intervene in an undesirable habit we need to find the genesis. We need to find what is referred to as a triggering event. In order to do this we want to go through a mapping exercise known as a chain analysis. In simple terms, we need to work backwards.

Take stock of your undesired event. From there look at what occurred immediately prior. Keep retracing your “steps” until you came across what you believe to be the triggering event. From the triggering event to the undesired event work to add as much detail as possible to every step. The more granular the detail the better we can understand the process.

Observe and describe. The next step will be intervention. But we can save that for another day.

Habits are powerful. Whether you want them or not. So you will need to work equally hard to change their influence in your life. It won’t just happen. Put in the work and you can see change.