I miss my
bad habits

I don’t believe it! It’s 11 pm and I’m still sitting here writing this article for the school magazine! I’ve had two weeks to write it and my teacher wants it tomorrow. She’s always complaining that I leave things to the last minute. Maybe she’s right. A month ago, I made a resolution to be more efficient this year and stop leaving things to the last minute. Well, I’ve already failed! At the moment, I guess kids all over the country are thinking back to the resolutions they made at the start of the school year. Some of them have already given up. One or two are doing well. Many, I suspect, like me, haven’t given up but are struggling with them. My other resolution was to get fitter. I’ve started going to the gym, I’ve taken up karate lessons and I’ve improved my diet. I’ve also changed my bedtime – it’s now a whole hour earlier. Am I feeling any fitter? Maybe a bit, but I’m also less happy. To be honest, I miss my bad habits. Why is it so hard to lead a better life?

Well, I’ve just read an article on a website and I’ve discovered that it isn’t my fault! In fact, it isn’t anyone’s fault. It’s our brains. The way they work makes it difficult to break bad habits and there’s nothing we can do. For example, you’re playing Minecraft late at night. You know you’ve got an important test tomorrow, so why don’t you just turn off the computer and go to bed? As I said, it’s your brain’s fault. Scientists have done experiments that show we use one part of our brain when we think about ourselves and another when we think about other people. However, when we think about ourselves in the future, we use the same part of the brain that we usually use to think about other people. In other words, the brain sees the ‘future you’ as a different person to your ‘present you’. And that’s why we find it difficult to make sensible decisions for ourselves in the future.

But that’s not all. Scientists have also found that it takes around ten weeks to form a good habit. (So in six weeks, going to the gym will stop being so difficult and become a normal part of my life.) That’s because the brain needs ten weeks to change and accept new habits. The good news is that after ten weeks, everything gets a lot easier. The bad news is that ten weeks is a really long time …

So there you are. Maybe we want to change our ways and become better people but our brains stop us from doing this. Or is this just an excuse? Oh look – I’ve finished my article on time! Anything is possible!