2nd Stage: Preparation

Raza Ahmed Khan

Education Secretary, JIH Hyderabad
Habits
• A Habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated
regularly and tends to occur subconsciously
• AJP: A Habit is a more or less fixed way of thinking,
willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of
a mental experience
• Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to
form because the behavioural patterns which humans
repeat become imprinted in neural pathways, but it is
possible to form new habits
Habits
• There are three main components to habit formation:
the context cue, behavioural repetition, and the reward
• The context cue can be a prior action, time of day, location, or
anything that triggers the habitual behaviour - anything that one's
mind associates with that habit, and one will automatically let a
habit come to the surface
• The behaviour is the actual habit that one exhibits,
• The reward, such as a positive feeling, therefore continues the
"habit loop“
• A habit may initially be triggered by a goal, but over time that goal
becomes less necessary and the habit becomes more automatic.
Habits
• Charles Duhigg is an
American journalist and
non-fiction author
• Book - The Power of Habit:
Why We Do What We Do
in Life and Business
Habits
• The Habit loop is a neurological pattern that governs any habit
• It consists of 3 elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward.
• Understanding these components can help in understanding
how to change bad habits or form good ones
• The habit loop is always started with a cue, a trigger that
transfers the brain into a mode that automatically determines
which habit to use
• The heart of the habit is a mental, emotional, or physical routine
• Finally there is a reward, which helps the brain determine if this
particular loop is worth remembering for the future
Habits
Cue: This is a trigger (e.g. a TV commercial, a
bar of chocolates, an emotion, or a sequence
of thoughts) that tells your brain to go into
automatic mode, using a particular habit
Routine: The automatic response (e.g. feeling
irritated, getting a glass of cool drink) can be
mental, emotional, or physical
Reward: The routine can produce physical
sensations or positive feelings (e.g. pride,
relaxation), which determine whether you’ll
remember this feedback loop in the future
Habits
In a nutshell:
• When an action produces a reward, it creates a
“feedback loop”
• As the cue-routine-reward loop becomes more
automatic, we start to crave and anticipate the rewards,
which locks in the routine and habit
• Once formed, our habits run on “auto-pilot”, without
conscious thought. It continues even when the reward is
changed or removed
Habits
• In an article in The New York Times, Duhigg notes,
"The cue and reward become neurologically
intertwined until a sense of craving emerges“
• Habits can be used to create significant outcomes for
individuals, organizations and societies, including
losing weight, becoming more productive,
influencing customer buying habits, and starting
social movements
How to Transform Habits?
• Habits are automatic responses that often operate
without our conscious awareness, and can be extremely
hard to change
• By understanding how habits are formed and how they
work, we can decide if, and how, to change them
• Habits can never truly be removed. You can only replace
and rebuild them, by changing the routine while keeping
the cue and reward constant. This is the “Golden Rule”,
which works best with backed by belief, and the use of
keystone habits and small wins
How to Transform Habits?
Bad Habits
• A bad habit is an undesirable behaviour pattern
• Common examples: procrastination, fidgeting,
overspending, and nail-biting
• The sooner one recognizes these bad habits, the
easier it is to fix them
• Rather than merely attempting to eliminate a bad
habit, it may be more productive to seek to replace it
with a healthier coping mechanism
How to Break a Bad Habit?
• You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it
by using the same cue, provide the same reward, but
change the routine
• To break your bad habits, identify the cues and rewards,
then, you can change the routine
• For some habits, there’s one other ingredient that’s
necessary: belief
• Unfortunately, there is no specific set of steps
guaranteed to work for every person in breaking their
bad habits and building a new habit
How to Break a Bad Habit?
• Willpower: A key factor in distinguishing a bad habit
from an addiction or mental disease is willpower
• If a person can easily control the behaviour, then it is
a habit
• Good intentions can override the negative effect of
bad habits, but their effect seems to be independent
and additive—the bad habits remain, but are
subdued rather than cancelled
How to Break a Bad Habit?
• Elimination: Many techniques exist for removing established
bad habits, e.g., withdrawal of reinforcers—identifying and
removing factors that trigger and reinforce the habit
• The brain appears to remember the context that triggers a
habit, so habits can be revived if triggers reappear
• Recognizing and eliminating bad habits as soon as possible is
advised
• Habit elimination becomes more difficult with age because
repetitions reinforce habits cumulatively over the lifespan
Tiny Habits
• BJ Fogg, PhD. Fogg,
founder of the Behavior
Design Lab at Stanford
University, describes a new
behavior design model that
can help people change
behaviors and create new
positive habits
Recipe for Changing Habits
• According to Fogg, when it comes to changing our habits the “go
big or go home” attitude doesn’t get us far.
• For example, people rarely stick to New Year’s resolutions to
exercise 1 hr/day, lose weight, or stop using our phones so much
• But, why? Why is it so hard? For starters, we put a lot of
pressure on ourselves to change
• We set expectations too high and are too hard on ourselves
when we don’t change instantly
• This leads us to feeling frustrated and disappointed, and
sometimes hopeless that we’ll ever be able to change
3 Components of Tiny Habits
• Anchor Moments: are existing routines or events, like brushing
your teeth or sitting down at your desk every morning. These
anchor moments remind you to do the new behaviour.
• New Tiny Behaviour: is a really simple version of the new habit
you want – like to meditate every day, a tiny habit might be to
take a deep breath. If you want to run every day, a tiny habit
might be start walking. Create the habit & build on it over time
• Instant Celebration: An instant celebration is something you do
to feel good and creative positive emotions. This might be a
smile, a head nod, visualizing fireworks going off, or giving
yourself a thumbs up
Tiny Habits Recipe Cards
Tiny Habits Recipe Cards
Tiny Habits Recipe Cards
Makkan Period
• The reaction of Sahaba to Allah’s command
– Prohibition of liquor
– Observing Pardah
Act Immediately
What new habits do you want?
• Identify a few tiny habit recipes and try them out
• It might take some trial and error to find the most effective
tiny behaviours, anchors, and celebrations.
• Have fun with it!
• The more you enjoy the tiny habits and actually want to do
the behaviours and celebrations, the more likely you are to
stick with it
Delaying & Procrastination Stagnation
• Do it today
• Delaying leads to the habit of procrastination
• And it leads to stagnation in personality
• If there is Urge to enter Jannah, good habits will be
attractive
• Change will be easy inshaAllah
Quran Says:
• Quran (3:118)
Quran Says:
• Quran (6:32)
Quranic Personality
• Moulding our habits to enjoy the habits appreciated
in the Quran and Sunnah
• Adopting the company of the pious
• Enjoying Good and Forbidding Evil with Hikmah
• Striving to keep improving every day
• Eagerness to enter Jannah and to be saved from
Hellfire
• To be beneficial for humanity
Worksheet
• Pledge of Commitment to Self
Homework
• Task: Experimenting Small Changes
(Next day participants have to share the experience)
 Thank you

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