It's hard to change. It's hard to stop doing things that you've always done, simply because you've always done them.

In addition to reinforcing long-standing habits, routine can also reinforce new ones. The more you do something regularly, the more likely it is that you'll continue to do so.

The more you do something regularly, the more likely it is that you'll continue to do so.

Even if you'd like to change some habits, you might find it more difficult than you expected.

Habit loops are frameworks for analyzing how habits are formed and destroyed.

Journalist Charles Duhigg introduces the concept of the habit loop in “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.”

This loop, he explains, offers the key to deciphering how and why habits develop.

The habit loop has three main components:

Sometimes called the reminder, the cue is the trigger that kicks off the habitual behavior.

Cues that prompt routine behaviors, or habits, vary widely. They can take a lot of different forms.

They usually fall into one of the following categories:

For example, as you walk by the break room, the smell of coffee wafting out prompts you to go pour yourself a cup. This cue might be your last action, walking by and smelling the coffee, or your location. You wouldn’t have smelled the coffee if you weren’t just outside the break room, after all.

The action of flushing the toilet cues you to wash your hands, while a nervous state of mind might cue self-soothing behaviors like biting your nails or jiggling your leg.

Your dog’s polite but insistent whining by the back door? He knows it’s time for you to hurry and take him for his evening walk.