Have you ever thought about why you do the things you do?

A lot of the things we do every day are habits that have built up over the years. Some habits are good, some not so good.

Psychologists call the unconscious process behind a habit the behaviour chain. The behaviour chain goes like this: A trigger causes a thought, leading to an action that leads to a consequence.

So, for example, as the time approached 10.30 at night, my body tells me to get ready for bed. That is an environmental trigger caused by the time. After that a whole train of actions follow: turn the TV off, fill the dishwasher, go to the toilet, brush my teeth, go to the bedroom, get undressed, pull back the blankets, lie in bed, close my eyes. Finally, the long-awaited consequence is going to sleep.

That’s a great behaviour chain, because I don’t have to remember all the things I need to do to go to bed.

A bad behaviour chain for me involves the arrival of 8.30 pm, when my brain tells me to go to the fridge and get chocolate, regardless of whether I am hungry or not. Then the thought is “Eat chocolate” and the consequence is an ever-expanding waistline.

Remember when you started to drive? You had to be told everything. But after a few months, the complex processes of driving become habits, and you can drive without any conscious thought.

Sometimes people tell me they can’t find time to pray or read the Bible, which are two of the most important daily habits christians need to develop. The way to start this process is to set up a behaviour chain. Program an alarm into your phone to go off at, say breakfast time. The alarm goes off and reminds you to read the Bible at breakfast time. After a while, you don’t need to be reminded that it’s time, because the smell of toast or the boiling of the kettle will be the trigger.

God has given us awesome brains, and we should use things like behaviour chains to replace bad or harmful habits with habits that draw us closer to Him.