Why Breaking Old Habits Feels Hard—and How to Make It Easier
Meaningful Movement
Takeaway: Change feels difficult because your brain's default settings resist new habits, keeping you in familiar, comfortable routines. To make lasting change, you need to consciously challenge these defaults and consistently choose healthier actions, even when it feels like swimming upstream. Over time, this effort rewires your brain, making healthy choices your new normal.
Why Breaking Old Habits Feels Hard—and How to Make It Easier
We all have moments where we feel stuck, wanting to make a change but finding ourselves falling back into old habits.
You might have a goal to hit the gym more, or to eat less junk food, but you just can’t seem to follow through.
You get home from work and are too tired for the gym. The thought of spending even twenty minutes in the kitchen feels overwhelming.
When you’re driven by your mood or acting without much thought, you’re likely falling into what I call “the default.”
Your default is made up of all the behaviors and thoughts that have brought you to where you are now—the very place where you feel the need for a change. It’s comfortable, familiar, and, unfortunately, it’s holding you back.
Because in order to reach your goals, something has to change.
At first, you’re going to feel like you’re swimming upstream. It’s going to feel like more work, more effort, and more resistance than you’d like. That’s because you’re actively going against what your autopilot—the default settings in your brain—wants you to do.
Your autopilot has been programmed to keep you comfortable, not to push you toward growth.
So what do you do when you’re too tired to exercise or not in the mood to make a healthy meal?
The first step is recognizing that these feelings are your autopilot talking.
Just because you feel too tired doesn’t mean you actually are too tired. It means your default mode is kicking in, trying to steer you back to what’s easy and familiar.
The solution, though it might not be what you want to hear, is to consciously decide not to listen to that autopilot. It’s about making the active choice to push through, even when you don’t feel like it.
Over time, this conscious effort rewires your brain. The goal is to create a new default—one that’s healthy, nutritious, and active. When your default setting becomes one that encourages you to exercise and make healthy choices, that’s when things get easier.
But how do you start rewiring your brain? Here are a few ways to get the needle moving:
Challenge Your Thoughts: When you catch yourself thinking, “I’m too tired,” or “I’m not in the mood,” pause and challenge that thought. Ask yourself, “Is this really true, or is it my autopilot talking?” Often, just recognizing that it’s your default mode can help you push through.
Set Clear Goals: Know exactly what you want to achieve and why it’s important to you. Write it down and remind yourself of your goals regularly. This helps keep you motivated when your autopilot tries to take over.
Start Small: Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to change everything at once. Pick one habit to focus on and make a conscious effort to change it. Maybe it’s going for a short walk every day or choosing a healthier snack in the afternoon. The key is consistency.
Focus On Initiating The New Action. If you feel too tired to exercise, try getting in the car and driving to the gym with no expectation to go inside. Or if at home, try starting with a few warm-up stretches. Even if the workout doesn’t progress any further, you’ve at least initiated the new behavior. That will ensure you’re continuing to rewire the new default mode.
Celebrate Small Wins: Each time you make a choice that goes against your default mode, celebrate it. Recognize that you’re making progress, even if it’s just one small step. This positive reinforcement helps to create new neural pathways that support your goals.
Stay Consistent: Change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to rewire your brain and create new habits. The more consistent you are with making conscious decisions, the easier it will become to override your autopilot.
All behavior exists because it’s served a purpose in our life. Your current default was created over years—even decades—of behavior that served a role in your life at that time.
Now, however, it no longer serves your needs. The process of rewiring your habits gives you the power to determine a new standard that will guide the lifestyle that serves you better today.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but with consistency you’ll soon find that the very things you once struggled with are now second nature.
Keep at it, and soon your new default will be the one that drives you forward, not holds you back.