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Ximena Garcia

English 1302-201

Judith McCann

23 March 2022

Changing Habits

A common misconception made by many people is assuming that someone cannot

change. Having the ability to alter specific perspectives of one can transform one’s

characteristics. They are not looking at this in the right way. The question is not whether

someone can change but if they want to change. There are several reasons why some would like

to modify or get rid of certain habits, characteristics, or costumes. Some motivations are wanting

to be healthier, becoming a better version of themselves, or having a better lifestyle. For a person

to succeed at changing, they have a will and place effort, or else no modifications will occur.

Breaking habits is not easy to overcome, but that does not mean it is impossible to complete. The

ability to change practices is possible, and one must have a purpose behind it. The cause for

changing can range from focusing on changing their life surroundings for the better, wanting to

become a better version of themselves, or having a healthier lifestyle. They must explore their

motivations, conspire on a method, carry out their plan and place an effort to succeed. 

Finding a Cause Behind the Habit  

To alter someone's customs, one must find a cause. The author Crystal Raypole claims

this will stimulate someone to start working for that rewarding incentive in the end (Raypole 1).

It will not be an easy journey; they will struggle, but it takes time and drive to see results. For

example, the author mentions that if someone's habit is constantly showing up late, the person

must find why, such as snoozing their alarm too many times, sleeping late, causing them to
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oversleep, or procrastinating (Raypole 1). Then, they must consider creating clear ideas of what

they could do differently to solve this problem. This could include deciding to sleep early,

creating a daily routine to stay on track, or setting reminders to stay on task. Once they have an

idea of what to do, it is now time to create action for them to reach their goal. 

On the other hand, author Charles Duhigg takes a different approach to find a cause

behind someone's habit. He begins with a person's example, Mandy. As discussed in his article,

he focused on the effects Mandy would have due to an unwanted habit, such as biting her nails.

He mentioned her patterns affected people's surroundings and Mandy's own life. What came next

was for Mandy to identify the triggers that caused her to bite her nails. The author Duhigg

recommended asking oneself "what does one feel right before one feels the urge to do

their habit?" (Duhigg 1). Mandy was able to identify what she felt and what she did before

wanting to bite her nails. She mentioned that before wanting to bite her nails, she felt a tingle on

her fingers and began to rub her thumb along the edge of her nails. In the end, Mandy concluded

that she would bite her nails when she was not doing anything, meaning she was bored. Unlike

Duhigg, Raypole had focused on thinking of an incentive one would obtain once someone

successfully got rid of their habits. Duhigg continues by talking about how that habit affected

Mandy's social life and her health (Duhigg 1), which meant that Duhigg focus was not on finding

incentives, but instead focusing on how someone was being affected. 

According to the author Kendra Cherry, our surroundings affect the way we act,

including our habits (Cherry 1). The power of how the environment shapes people. Cherry states

that people's surroundings also influence habits, behavior, characteristics, and personality.

Therefore, the surroundings of someone are the causes of their habits (Cherry 1). Once they find
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the roots of who or where they have been around and observe similar habits, the person must

eliminate those who influenced their unhealthy or bad habits.  

Going Through with the Plan  

Wanting to transform their habits will not happen by telling themselves/s they wish to

change. They must place effort on themselves to see changes. Therefore, the ideas they thought

of to resolve the problem of waking up late must be introduced as their new daily routine

(Raypole 1). Although many can commit to their goals, some encounter difficulties while trying

to follow their path. If this were to happen, author Raypole recommended rethinking the

strategies they were previously doing and looking into new ways that may work for them

(Raypole 1). Keep in mind that people will not obtain their goal in one try. There will be

seconds, thirds, and fourth failures even during their journey, even can fall back into the same

habits without noticing (Raypole 1). The author mentions an example where someone talks with

a friend and begins to disagree on a topic. Their friend then begins to tease to try and avoid

conflict with them but accidentally hurts their feelings. They then tell them, and their friend

agrees to stop, yet after two or three months, the friend begins to do it again without noticing.

The friend then decided to find another way to get rid of that lousy habit; therefore, the friend

started going to therapy to speak about their issues on fears around conflict. In the end, the friend

was able to identify their bad habit, try to correct it but was unsuccessful, change their routine a

second time, and successfully deal with their problem.  

The Science Behind Habits  

The author Jaffe focuses on the neurological science behind why people have such a

challenging time maintaining their new lifestyle to quit their bad habits. Starting, habits are

formed with character, actions, thoughts, and feelings. Over time, people do all these things in a
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certain way, eventually becoming a habit and staying in their memory systems. The type of

memory classification that people are categorized to use while acting on their practices, unaware

of what they do, is called procedural memory (knowing how to do things) (Jaffe 1). According to

the author, procedural memory is one of the most important ways people form their habits (Jaffe

1). With more research, scientists found three different behavior phycological domains that

consist of procedural memory. Pavlovian conditioning is the first behavior, where the

conditioning of someone is created when two stimuli are linked together, creating a new

response (Jaffe 1). The second one is operant conditioning, where behavior can be influenced by

positive or negative reinforcement of people's surroundings, for example, a reward or

punishment system (Jaffe 1). Lastly is observational learning. This means that people will act a

certain way depending on what they see from others when observing their surroundings, such as

behavior, attitude, or emotions (Jaffe 1).  

Different Perspectives  

Author Crystal Raypole focused on how people's bad habits can affect others around

them and how to get rid of them. In contrast, author Charles Duhigg centers his idea on how

one's bad habit can affect one's health and how to substitute their bad habit into a different

action. Therefore, the author's ways to get rid of their bad habits will differ, such as how Charles

Duhigg mentions that for people to eliminate habits they do not want, they must substitute them

with another action for someone to become too occupied or distracted this will cause them not to

repeat their bad habit. Also, Duhigg focuses on the importance of their health and how it can

affect them depending on what bad habits people have. For example, Charles Duhigg states that

if someone has the habit of biting their nails, if they keep up that bad habit, eventually it will
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become a problem on a larger scale and become a chronic nail bleeder, which will cause nerve

damage to their fingers.  

Conclusion  

To conclude, getting rid of habits people no longer want is possible, but there is a lengthy

process one must take to achive their goal. It not only takes time, but also effort, consistency, and

a desire that can lead to a cause of wanting to change for the better. Because if someone does not

have a motivation behind doing something, they will not achieve what they are trying to do. As

simple as that. People need to find out why they do their actions in order to resolve their bad

habits. Once they find that reasons, they can now create a new lifestyle to follow and must not

quit it no matter how many times they fail. Because in one’s journey will not be a breeze. It will

take time. But just remember that in the end, if one in to follow their steps correctly according to

the authors saying, they will reach success and their goal of removing an unwanted habit will be

compleded. Just keep in mind one thing: that what one gives is what one will receive; therefore,

if someone does not like what they get from others, they must change what they give. Because

not only does it affect them and their health, but it also affects others around them. 
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Works Cited

Cherry, Kendra. “How It Is Possible to Change Your Personality.” Verywell Mind, Verywell

Mind, 22 Feb. 2021, https://www.verywellmind.com/can-you-change-your-personality-

2795428.

Duhigg, Charles. “The Golden Rule of Habit Change.” Psych Central, 17 July 2012,

psychcentral.com/blog/the-golden-rule-of-habit-change#1. Accessed 4 Mar. 2022.

“How It Is Possible to Change Your Personality.” Verywell Mind, 2019,

www.verywellmind.com/can-you-change-your-personality-2795428. Accessed 4 Mar.

2022.

Jaffe, Adi. “Why Is It so Hard to Change Bad Habits?” Psychology Today, 26 Mar. 2019,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-addiction/201903/why-is-it-so-hard-

change-bad-habits. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.

Raypole, Crystal. “Can People Really Change?” Healthline, 31 July 2020,

www.healthline.com/health/do-people-change.

“How to Break a Habit (and Make It Stick).” Healthline, 28 Oct. 2019,

www.healthline.com/health/how-to-break-a-habit. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

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