by Athirah Sofea

Not too long ago, I briefly discussed on James Clear’s groundbreaking guide, Atomic Habits’, which emphasizes the power of improving yourself by just 1% each day, leading to profound transformations. 

Clear explores the potency of small habits and reveals the Four Laws of Behaviour Change, providing a practical framework for cultivating positive habits while discarding the ones holding you back. By breaking down the habit-building process into four stages – Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward, this breakdown can help us understand what a habit is, how it operates, and how to enhance it. 

Habits operate on these four-step loop and in the same order every time – Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward, forming the backbone of automatic behaviours. 

A cue signals the brain to initiate a behaviour, followed by cravings motivating a change in internal state rather than the habit itself. The response is the actual behaviour, whether a thought or an action. Finally, the reward serves as the end goal, satisfying and teaching you. Together, these steps form a neurological feedback loop, enabling automatic habits. 

These steps can be divided into two phases: the problem phase – the cue and the craving, signalling the need for change; and the solution phase – the response and the reward, involving action to achieve the desired change. 

The brain constantly scans the environment, predicting and learning from responses in split seconds. As adults, we rarely notice the habits that are running our lives, like flipping a light switch as you enter a dark room, or unplugging the toaster after each use, or always changing into comfortable clothes after getting home from work. After decades of mental programming, we automatically slip into these patterns. 

Creating a Good Habit: 

• Make it Obvious (Cue): Ensure the cue is unmistakable. 
• Make it Attractive (Craving): Cultivate a desire for the habit. 
• Make it Easy (Response): Simplify the execution of the habit. 
• Make it Satisfying (Reward): Associate the habit with a gratifying reward. 

Breaking a Bad Habit: 

• Inversion of Cue: Render the cue invisible. 
• Inversion of Craving: Make the habit unattractive. 
• Inversion of Response: Increase the difficulty of the habit. 
• Inversion of Reward: Make the habit unsatisfying. 

By understanding and applying these laws, we can harness the power of small changes to transform our habits and, consequently, our lives.