We now realize there’s a hole in that road, and it leads you right into a bad habit. Yet even though you are more aware of your triggers (cues) and don’t do your bad habit every time, you still end up falling into the same hole.

In short, being aware of your triggers is definitely not a long-term solution. It will help drastically at first as you realize you can avoid them, but only for a short while.

What then, is a good long-term solution? How do you kick a bad habit, for good?!

Instead of not doing something — avoiding your triggers and carefully walking around the hole in the road — why not do something else?

Being aware of your triggers will help you to avoid them. But it’s incredibly hard to not do anything. Not doing something is similar to creating a vacuum by squeezing ketchup from a plastic bottle. The result is a vacuum — one which will is resolved by deforming the bottle or by letting in air to take its place. Either way, something displaces the ketchup no longer in the bottle.

It is incredibly difficult to stop habits. However, it is much easier to change an existing habit. (Feel free to confirm this with your own research.) Specifically, the most effective way to change a bad habit is to find another routine (and sometimes trigger) to yield the same reward.

Again, the best way to change a habit is to switch it.

Let’s say you want to stop watching TV. You could put an interesting book by the couch so you will see it when you sit down (the trigger). (Additionally, you could hide the remote or put a picture in front of the TV.) This way, reading the book would naturally replace your previous routine of watching TV.

Do you notice how both reading and TV have the same reward? In this case, it is mental stimulation.

This is important! The reward — the desire you want to fulfill — may not need to change. Often there are healthy ways of achieving the same reward.

To review: The routine goes. The reward stays.

Don’t just avoid the bad habit, but displace your bad routine with a better. There’s a hole in that road. So take another one instead!

This is much more reasonable than not doing something bad.

But wait — how do you figure out a habit’s reward? Tune in to the next post to find out.

You now understand how triggers (or cues) lead to the bad habit you are trying to change. Let’s refer to them as holes in the road.

Yet it just seems you are painfully aware of the holes.

And you still follow through with the bad habit — over and over.

Now what?!

The first goal of awareness training is to make you fully conscious of scenarios which lead to bad habits. Is it working? Are you noticing what triggers you to follow through on a bad habit?

If not, you will very soon. Add to your written list of any situations which immediately precede your bad habit. This process shouldn’t take very long — a few days to a few weeks.

Eventually you will begin to notice, “Wait, this is one of my triggers!”

The second goal is to set yourself up to avoid your triggers and weaknesses once you are aware of them. Pastor James MacDonald refers to them as “holes” in a road in this post.

Here is a powerful excerpt (actual source unknown) explaining the concept of holes:

Day 1: I went for a walk down a street. I fell into a hole. I didn’t see it. It took me a long time to get out. It’s not my fault.
Day 2: I went for a walk down the same street. I fell in the same hole. It took me a long time to get out. Why did I do that?
Day 3: I went for a walk down the same street. I fell in the same hole. I got out quickly. It is my fault.
Day 4: I went for a walk down the same street. I saw the hole. I walked around it.
Day 5: I went for a walk down a different street. I can’t handle it when I go down that street. Every time I go down that street, I feel something sucking me down that hole! I’m not going down that street anymore! I don’t like what happens on that street. And when I get there, I can’t handle it. I don’t want sin to reign in my body so I’m not going down that street anymore.

You know where this road leads. You know there’s a hole in it. You know you don’t want to go there.

However, being aware of your triggers is not enough. This buys you a little time as you realize the routine you are about to slip into. But knowing there is a hole there is not enough to stop you from falling into it every time.

You have to actively avoid the holes.

But how can you just avoid holes? How do you not do something?! It’s not that easy!

You’re right — it’s not easy. Yet it can be done. This is worth finishing!

Notice the narrator in the story eventually went down a different street. More on that in the next post.