The happiness behind habits: why do we like to do the same thing so often?

Have you ever thought about it? At least 43 percent of everything we do in a day, we do automatically. Without thinking about it.

Getting up, showering, washing hair, brushing, getting dressed – it goes so fast that you hardly think about it. And fortunately, you don't have to. The automatic pilot in you helps you with this kind of daily hassle. But also how we react to another, how we laugh, how we deliver a business message: often we just do it. Habits are there to help people: our brain is programmed that way. If you have to worry for hours about every little thing in your life – whether or not to throw cream in the soup, for example – then you have no time left.

Now there is a new book by Wendy Wood: ‘Happy with Habits’. She is a professor of psychology, so this woman knows what she is talking about. She says that so much happens in our subconscious as a simple habit and that is exactly what you should want. Also with good behavior. You can teach yourself that. Take, for example, the goal of losing a bit more weight. Just feeling a bit better in your skin. If you get up every day and immediately lie down in a plank on the floor, that will become a habit after a while. In the first few days, you will think: I'm in a hurry, don't feel like it, I'm tired, act normal, but after day 216 you won't know any better. Then you jump out of bed into that plank and keep going. This way, good behavior becomes a habit and you can benefit from all your life goals a lot.

It's also handy because we humans are creatures of habit. We like to do the same things often, we like to go to places we already know, we like to bike the same route to work every day. But you can also unlearn annoying habits and replace them with something nice. Do you always eat candy after eating something savory? Try chewing gum instead. Start with it and after two months, the time it takes to learn a habit, you do it automatically. If you repeat the new behavior you would like to see in yourself often enough. Every day again. It takes some energy, but yes, this is the way to be the best version of yourself. And we all want that, right? Fortunately, after a while, you don't have to think about it anymore. And about almost half of everything you do either.

Okay, now time for coffee. Oh wait, I've already had that. Habits, huh.