Nicole Vignola on how to create habits that stick in 2025
Welcome to 'Your Brain On...' with Nicole Vignola, Instagram's favourite neuroscientist (@nicolesneuroscience). In this monthly series, the author of REWIRE is going to be filling Women's Health readers in on the latest science and know-how concerning your most complex, mysterious organ.
Her aim? To harness such intel to live your healthiest, happiest life. As we hit the new year, she explains how to harness the collective self-improvement buzz for lasting change.
It’s almost as if, in January, the ether is pumping out enthusiasm to cement a new workout routine, chase a career ambition or commit to a meditation practice – meaning we're all feeling motivated by osmosis.
As far as I'm concerned, you should ride those waves and take advantage of all that collective motivation to achieve those changes you've always wanted to make. While motivation is a great starting point, though, it will wane, as it always does.
So, how do you create changes that stick? Let's get into it.
Motivation
Firstly, let’s understand motivation. On a biological level, it’s driven by the hormone and neurotransmitter dopamine which cues your brain to seek out rewards to feel good. Essentially, dopamine signals that something valuable is coming and drives you to act to obtain that reward. This is what motivation is.
You might feel very motivated early in the new year to head to a yoga class every Saturday morning. But, as you know from past experience, motivation can wane with time. That's why it's important to develop tools which will keep you going with your changes, when motivation inevitably slides.
Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change (Hardback)
How you form habits
A core piece of this is to make your change a habit. Habit formation is the process where behaviours become automatic through repetition – meaning that you no longer need to rely on motivation to cook a homemade dinner rather than tapping to order a takeaway, fire up YouTube for a 20 minute HIIT session or whatever you're trying to achieve.
Creating a habit involves three key components: cue, routine, and reward. A cue (in this instance, the January buzz) triggers the behaviour, the routine is the action itself, and the reward reinforces it by activating the brain’s dopamine pathways, creating a sense of satisfaction.
Over time, the brain links the cue to the reward, making the behaviour habitual. Repetition strengthens neural connections, shifting the behaviour from conscious effort to automatic response. But most people don’t get to the point where it becomes automatic, because there hasn’t been enough repetition to solidify the pathway.
Training your brain away from distraction
Something that can help with building up enough repetition? Working to train your brain away from behaviours that disrupt your dopamine system, thus disrupting your motivation. One of the biggest culprits for this your smartphone and the culture of immediate gratification they fuel.
Notifications, social media, and quick rewards like 'likes' or messages provide instant dopamine hits, training your brain to seek fast, shallow rewards rather than long-term, meaningful gains. This shift is amplified by the modern world’s convenience… we can have almost anything at our fingertips. From entertainment to food, we no longer need to wait or put in effort. If we’re hungry, we don’t need to cook; we can order in with the swipe of our thumbs.
While this convenience feels rewarding in the short term, it trains us to favour immediate satisfaction over the delayed gratification required to pursue goals that demand time, patience, and effort.
Over time, this undermines our ability to stay focused, motivated, and productive, as the brain becomes wired to prioritise ease over long-term rewards. This ultimately has an effect on how we view our actions by February as motivation begins to wean off… because it always does.
So how do you create changes that last?
Be consistent
Boring I know, but consistency requires you to stick to your non-negotiables regardless of whether you’re feeling motivated or not. The key lies in being intentional about how you spend your dopamine currency. (Think of dopamine as a series of coins you have at your disposal, every day. When they're gone, they're gone.)
While immediate rewards, like scrolling through social media, binge-watching videos, or swiping for quick satisfaction, may offer a temporary hit of pleasure, they ultimately deplete your dopamine 'coins.'
This leaves you feeling unmotivated and less capable of pursuing goals that require sustained focus and effort, such as learning a new skill, improving your health, or progressing in your career.
Write down your non-negotiables and stick to them
This will help you prioritise long-term, intentional habits even when you want to lean into instant gratification. Non-negotiables act as mental guardrails, reducing decision fatigue and making it easier to follow through. For example, 'I will move my body for 30 minutes every day,' 'I won’t check my phone until I’ve completed my morning routine,' or 'I will have no screens an hour before bed.'
When these habits are clear and specific, you’re less likely to negotiate with yourself in the moment when willpower is at its weakest and instant gratification can easily win.
Avoid social media first thing in the morning
Social media directly after waking up disrupts brain activity. It forces your brain from a sleep state (delta waves) to a focused concentration state (beta waves), bypassing the usual sleepy dream-like (theta waves) and awake but relaxed (alpha waves) states that usually come before concentration. This primes your brain to be distracted throughout the day and this means you start to lean into immediate gratification more as the day goes on.
No screens before bed
One habit to pay particular attention to is screen time before bed. The artificial light from phones, tablets, and televisions interferes with melatonin production, disrupting sleep quality. Beyond this, excessive late-night screen use can also impact dopamine production.
Scrolling through social media or consuming stimulating content overstimulates the brain’s reward pathways at a time when they should be winding down. This can leave you feeling unrefreshed, more prone to low energy, and less motivated to tackle your goals the following day.
Establishing a screen-free wind-down routine, such as reading, journaling, or meditating, helps reset your brain, supporting better sleep and healthier dopamine balance to embark on your healthier habits the next day.
Remember that your mood isn’t static
Another important point to remember is that your mood isn’t fixed. If you’re feeling lazy, unmotivated, or in a slump, you can actively shift your state to one that feels more energised and ready to act. Simple tools like putting on upbeat music, stepping outside for fresh air, or changing into your favourite gym wear can trigger a mental and physical shift.
These small actions provide just enough stimulation to kickstart your motivation and help you overcome the initial resistance to doing something productive. The key is to act before you feel ready, because motivation often follows action, not the other way around!
With all of this information, I hope to see you thriving in January and beyond! Until next month my friends.
Nic xx
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