Repeating a behavior is how people create and sustain new habits.
Through the replication of the same action, people imprint a new way of doing something that resists a return to an old norm.
But, not all recurrent actions constitute habits. In many cases, people mistake a pattern for a habit, which is an entirely different animal.
A pattern is something that becomes repeated over time, while a habit is a pattern with a purpose.
Like a habit, a pattern is a recurring sequence of events, actions, or behaviors. But patterns often emerge without much thought or desire. They occur in relationships, groups, and organizations when people simply engage in the same actions over and over.
For instance, a couple that argues every time one of their children acts inappropriately might find themselves stuck in a destructive pattern of conflict.
Or a group that consistently rehashes decisions that have already been made finds itself in a pattern of ineffective decision-making.
Patterns are particularly difficult to change because they usually occur without intention or willful thought. In fact, in many cases, people are blind to the patterns they recreate precisely because they don’t engage in the actions purposively.
In contrast, habits are formed by engaging in a specific and personal routine or behavior that begins with conscious intention. People set goals to form or eliminate habits and set reminders to encourage their repetition.
They also invent targeted strategies to overcome resistance, such as measuring progress or making the behavior easier to engage in. People actively pursue habits, but they passively find themselves in a pattern.
This distinction matters because it illustrates that repetition alone is not enough to create or eliminate a habit. The more we keep the active intention and purpose of a habit front and center, the more likely it is for the habit to take hold and become a fixture in our lives.
If we want to form a habit, we need the help of intentional goals, strategies, and targets. Simply repeating the action or behavior over and over will generally fail to create a new habit.
The habits people have will determine almost everything they achieve or fail to achieve in life. Creating new habits depends on repetition but goes a step further.
Setting goals and inventing strategies for permanence is what forming habits is all about. Mistaking a pattern for a habit is why some behaviors don’t become everlasting. Make a habit of avoiding this misstep.
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