Impulse buying: breaking habit to buy at once (part 2)

In my previous post, I explain how the habit of buying works. If you missed Part 1, I would suggest looking through it to understand the terms from this post.

Change circumstances

The first step to battle a habit is to find its trigger (cue) and contentiously avoid it.

Analyze, what triggers your impulse buying. It can be a logo of your favorite store (BTW, it’s not only about seeing it, but it’s also about thinking of it; there is no difference between the seeing and thinking for your brain), it can be a particular repetitive situation (i.e. you are walking to subway after work passing stores), or you are switching to automatic buying when you are shopping for needed groceries.

As soon as you define your cues try to set simple rules to change the circumstance, thus avoiding the triggers. For example, you can set a rule not to go to your favorite store on weekdays, change your route to the subway (the longer walk is healthier :)) or switch to online grocery shopping.

HALT for shopping

The hardest thing about fighting old habits is the fact is your energy for the fighting is your willpower. And as researches show, the willpower is very unreliable stuff.

HALT comes from the physiology of relationship, where they suggest not having dates when you are Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired (=HALT). The basic reason is in these states your willpower is close to zero and you can do stupid things.

Well, this is also true for impulse shopping (as well as for all impulse behavior: eating, cleaning, drinking, and whatever you deal with). My advice is to set a very strict rule: ask yourself before entering any store: am I hungry? am I angry?… You’ve got me. If the answer to any of these questions “yes”, do not enter the store.

Figure out your reward

Usually, this requires some physiological analysis (or self-analysis), but in general, it’s the most effective element in changing a habit.

The reward your brain craves can be very far away from a place of purchase or even from the object of purchase. The main thing is for some time after shopping your brains feel good.

Here is (example, not comprehensive) list of possible reward:

• safety (your brain thinks, that buying more = safe)
• abundance (if you faced traumatic scarcity experience, your brain could think more = better)
• socialization (if you shop with friends or enjoy to talk to shopping assistance)
• physical activity (you simply enjoy walking extra stop and your brain takes the store on the way as an excuse)
• etc.

Invent new routine

I would advise getting professional psychological assistance to understand your reward. But if you cannot afford it, there is a free (but not easy) method:

1. Guess your reward (let’s say it’s socialization)
2. Think about what you can substitute your routine (shopping). Play the scenario in your head several times (instead of going to shop with Sharon, go to a coffee shop with her)
3. Next time when you notice your cue (call from Sharon) do conscious effort to play the scenario in real life.
4. Evaluate how do feel: if the feeling comparable with what you feel after the impulse buying?
   • If yes, you might find your reward right. Just repeat the new behavior over and over again
   • If no, go to step 1.

Keep it positive!

I mean it. This stuff doesn’t work on pure willpower (believe me, I tried). But as soon as you find anything you enjoy, it works.

The reason for this is how the brain works: you cannot form a new habit if your brain doesn’t believe it likes it. In the above example, you have to love both Sharon and coffee, so the new habit can start wiring.

Keep going for 60 days

I mentioned in Part 1, that on average it takes 60 days to form a new habit. The number varies from 2 weeks to 9 months, and scientists still don’t know what influence the numbers. So I’m sorry, but no tips here. Let’s hope we are on short end of the scale.

So hang the calendar on the wall and start crossing days. It works, and it definitely worth it!