Coaching practices for How to Break a Habit

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Break a Habit, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• Every time I try to break this habit I just try to white-knuckle it away and grit my teeth through the craving
• I keep doing this thing I swear I’ll stop, and I genuinely can’t say what sets it off or what I’m even getting out of it
• My motivation runs out by day three every time and the habit just quietly dies
• I only ever realize I’ve been picking (or pulling, or biting) after it’s already done
• The interrupting takes constant effort and a few good weeks in I just stop bothering

Practices that may help

1. Keep the cue and reward, swap the routine
   Duhigg’s “golden rule”: change a habit by inserting a new routine between the same cue and reward.
   The Power of Habit, Made Practical
2. Map the cue-routine-reward loop
   Break a habit into its three parts before you try to change anything.
   The Power of Habit, Made Practical
3. Don't break the chain
   Mark each day you do the habit and aim never to break the unbroken run of marks.
   Habit Tracking
4. Build precise awareness of when and how the habit occurs
   You can’t interrupt what you can’t detect — map the habit sequence in granular detail.
   Habit Reversal Training, Made Practical
5. Clarify the personal costs of the habit to sustain motivation
   HRT requires consistent effort — mapping specific ways the habit costs you makes that effort worth maintaining.
   Habit Reversal Training, Made Practical
6. Fire the new routine on the original cue
   Leave the trigger in place and attach the new behavior to it, every time.
   Habit Substitution: Swap the Routine, Keep the Reward
7. Identify your cue
   Pin down the exact trigger that fires the habit before you can do anything about the habit.
   The Habit Loop, Made Practical
8. Shrink the habit until it is guaranteed
   Cut the behavior down until skipping it would be more effort than doing it.
   Micro Habits: Start Absurdly Small
9. Install a competing response that blocks the habit physically
   Pre-load a specific muscle action that makes performing the habit impossible — and hold it for one minute.
   Habit Reversal Training, Made Practical
10. Shrink the behavior until it’s tiny
    Scale the habit down to something you can do even on your worst, busiest day.
    Tiny Habits, Made Practical

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