Habits can take an average of 66 days to form and become automatic. Key elements of habits include cues, actions, and rewards. Keystone habits like exercise and meditation can help transform other areas of life by building self-discipline. To build lasting habits, find your "why" by visualizing success through small process goals rather than large end results. Dopamine can be both an enemy and friend in habit formation - be aware of cues that trigger cravings but also use rewards to motivate completing small tasks. Various traps like temporal discounting, decision fatigue, and loss aversion can challenge self-discipline and should be planned for. Maintaining habits requires setting small wins, associating acts with other habits, and gradually increasing

1. HabitsThat
Last

2. What is
Habit?
An acquired mode of behavior that has
become nearly or completely involuntary.
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

3. A habit may take 18 - 254 days to form. On average it
takes 66 days to form a habit and at least 91 days to
become part of lifestyle.
How Habits
Built?Are

4. Each day you repeat the wanted behavior, you need less
discipline to make it stick. After 66 days, it becomes automatic
and takes very little effort to maintain, it becomes a habit.

5. Charles Duhig breaks down habits into 3 elements-
Cue, Action & Reward

6. Our brain follows a simple process-
When it sees a familiar cue, it makes us perform the associated
action in order to get the reward it craves.

7. Patterns that lead to transformation of several other areas of life at once.
Like exercise or meditation or waking up earlier or saving money
Keystone
Habits

8. Why
Fail?Habits

9. Law of Change: We reject change, the more rapid change the more strongly we reject.
Setting Impossible Goals: Setting goals that are very hard to achieve or follow on regular
basis.
Lack of Planning: Starting habit building process without proper knowledge and
planning. Being impulsive.

10. Habits
Building
Lasting

11. Find your
Why
Be specific in your goal, make it measurable to keep track of it, pause and
visualize your why for a minute, slow down don’t be impulsive but oddly enough
visualizing more about your goal may lead you to go further away from
achieving it so you need to do it properly.

12. Find your
Why
• UCLA research found that visualizing the process of success is more effective
than visualizing the end result
• Visualizing the end result releases dopamine which means you get the reward
but without any work
• Be process oriented don’t be goal oriented

13. Be More
Selective
• Don’t make yourself miserable rather be more selective. Don’t try to push yourself too
much.
• First step is to form keystone habits then ask yourself how your new habits will help you,
are you doing them to make your life better or just because you’re are supposed to do it
• While setting goals keep things that you genuinely believe will help you, keep things that
you believe.

14. Keystone
Habits

15. Keystone Habits are super efficient in building good
patterns and changing bad habits

16. Regular physical activity is a powerful keystone habit. It helps create more self
discipline and self control.
Meditation is another powerful keystone habit. It helps to increase focus,
resilience, self-esteem, less depression and anxiety.

17. Building self-discipline is difficult but if you built keystone
habits, you won’t need more self-discipline than you
already have.

18. Dopamine
EnemyAs Your

19. Contrary to popular believes, dopamine is not associated with happiness. It is complex
mind numbing neuro transmitter which is directly related to addiction and motivation.
One of the path it travels leads to nucleus accumbens which plays a role in how we
perceive pleasure, aversion and reward and reinforcement learning.
A dopamine release triggers these feelings related with that part of the brain.

20. You experience dopamine release each time you encounter a cue associated with the
reward.The mere sight of a cue say chocolate will increase dopamine in the Nucleus
Accumbens then it will produce a craving which if not met will lead to an unpleasant
decrease in the dopamine level.
So what you get when you give in to that is the release from anxiety that will occur if
you don’t follow the temptation and satisfy your brain. It’s just the relief from the
anxiety of not getting what your brain wanted.

21. Dopamine reacts to cue; its rush is strongest when the reward is in sight. Be aware of
the dopamine rush and the cues that cause it and move it out of sight.
Reward yourself only when you schedule it. Wait before giving in to the temptation
because waiting reduces the effect.
Acknowledge the craving and let it flow and then think about your why you are doing
the habit, is it worthy enough to give in to the temptation and not achieve your long
term goal?

22. Dopamine
FriendAs Your

23. Dopamine can be used to form new habits. Dopamine responds to cue so make it
associated with good habits.
If there is a long gap in your habit forming, then break it down to small actions and
introduce rewards for each of them to make it easier for you to do. Motivations will
build up as you achieve small wins.
Use music, food, nap etc to reward yourself.

24. Pomodoreo Technique is a common time management technique used to
decrease procrastination by dividing each task in 25 minute blocks and with a 5
minute break. The promise of a break releases dopamine and helps you to carry
out the 25 minute task.
Use variation to keep yourself motivated.

25. Traps That Challenge
Self-DisciplineYour

26. Temporal Discounting: People prefer immediate result over long term
success.
People tend to think their future selfs as different than they are now which
is not correct.
To overcome this, you need to think about the future reward and why that
is a good choice and compare it to the instant reward.

27. False Hope Syndrome: Don’t set impossible goals. Setting impossible
goals gives a powerful boost in dopamine and makes you feel better
instantly (immediate gratification).
Setting impossible goals leads to failure and lack of motivation and self
confidence . Focus more on small goals.

28. Decision Fatigue: Decision fatigue is simple not having the energy to make
decisions. When this happens people tend to stick to status quo and
neglect the healthier decision.
In the presence of too many choices people tends to stick to the status
quo. To avoid this decision fatigue just reduce the number of trivial
decision you have to make.
Have a break before making decisions.

29. Stress and Self-discipline: Stress depletes willpower. The moment your
mood goes sour, your brain starts to search for an easy solution to make
you feel better and often goes for an easy way to get reward, unhealthy
choices like eating junk food, net browsing, shopping, smoking.
Physical activities help to reduce stress. Reading a book also helps to
reduce stress. A walk also helps. Meditation also helps. Spend time with
people you like. Listen to music.
Form a habit of regular de-stressing.

30. Dunning-Kruger effect : A cognitive bias in which a person’s level of skills is
directly related to how they estimate their abilities. Unskilled people
overestimate their abilities while high skilled people underestimate their
abilities.

31. Restraint Bias: People overestimating their abilities to control
impulses like hunger, drug cravings, when you have this kind of
belief you are more prone to overexposing yourself to
temptations.

32. Hot-cold Empathy Gap: People who are in clod state like not
hungry or not feeling craving tend to underestimate the power
of impulses when in a hot state like hungry or feeling craving.

33. These effects result in you losing control of your habit so the
proper way is to assume that you don’t have enough control or
willpower.
If you don’t have to, don’t test your willpower.

34. Status Quo Bias: It is a preference to keep things as they are. Any change
from your current state is considered as a loss. So making changes
becomes harder.
Loss Aversion: The tendency to prefer avoiding losses than to acquire
gains.
The Endowment Effect: The tendency to scribe more value to things just
because you own them.

35. Because of the loss aversion and endowment effect you put more value in
eating the junk food that you have and combined with the restrain bias it is
more likely that you will give in to your temptations.
To battle this remind you of your goals, avoid temptations by not storing
junks or things that distracts you. Choose an alternative.

36. How To Plan
TemptationsFor

37. Choice Prevention: Make choices before they become emotional.
Prevention is the best policy. Like if you always feel hungry at 3pm, pack
a healthy snack or food with you to eat at that time instead of giving in
to your cravings and buying unhealthy food.
Avoid situations where your self discipline is challenged.

38. Roadblocks: Set roadblocks so that it becomes difficult to give in to impulses.
Like avoid taking large amount of money for lunch, instead carry a small note
for the meal which will prevent you to buy expensive junk food. Or carry only a
small amount for the whole day so that you can not spend it recklessly cause
in that case you will not have money to do other necessary things.
Schedule Indulgences: Schedule a cheat day or reward day and break the rules
on that day. Take a rest day. Do nothing and just relax.

39. How To Maintain
Discipline

40. Setting Stakes: Set some punishments for failure.
Set and Achieve Small Wins: Set small achievable goals.
Association: Associate acts with already established habits like associated
meditation with brushing teeth. Remember to set small goals (Like doing
for 5 minutes).
Scale: Slowly increase the time, the scale to give time to adapt.
Momentum: Start small and gradually increase or increase the momentum.

41. Make the act of starting as easy as possible as
starting is the hardest part. Keep going is what
matters.

42. The
Conclusion

43. Thank
You