The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming.
Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit-forming – taking drugs, eating junk food, browsing social media – is associated with higher levels of dopamine. Dopamine is released when you experience pleasure but also when you anticipate it.
It is the anticipation of a reward – not the fulfillment of it – that gets us to take action.
“Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. It is the craving that leads to the response.”
The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.
Temptation Bundling: pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do
For example:
How to build your temptation bundling strategy:
You can combine temptation bundling with habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].”
For example:
The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us. We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe.
We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups. Each group offers an opportunity to leverage the 2nd Law of Behavior Change and make our habits more attractive:
Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive.
We do not desire to smoke cigarettes or check Instagram. At a deep level, we simply want to reduce uncertainty and relieve anxiety, win social acceptance and approval, or achieve status.
Our habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires. Some reduce stress by smoking a cigarette while others go for a run.
Once you associate a solution with the problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it.
For example:
Life feels reactive, but it is actually predictive.
The cause of your habits is actually the prediction that precedes them. The prediction leads to a feeling, which is how we normally describe a craving – a feeling, a desire, an urge.
Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings.
To reprogram your brain to enjoy hard habits, make them more attractive by learning to associate them with a positive experience. Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive.
For example:
Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action.
“I refer to this as the difference between being in motion and taking action. The two ideas sound similar, but they’re not the same. When you’re in motion, you’re planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don’t produce a result. Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome.”
For example:
Motion can be useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself.
Motion feels like making progress without running the risk of failure. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done.
The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. Focus on taking action, not being in motion.
To master a habit, start with repetition, not perfection. You don’t need to map out every feature of a new habit. Just practice it. Get your reps in.
Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.
The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it. What matters is the rate at which you perform the behavior. It’s the frequency that makes the difference.
Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
So it is crucial to make your habits so easy that you’ll do them even when you don’t feel like it.
Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.
Rather than trying to overcome friction, reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.
Optimize your environment to make actions easier. To practice a new habit, choose a place that is already along the path of your daily routine. Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life.
Another way is to prime your environment to make future actions easier.
For example:
To break bad habits, increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is high, habits are difficult.
For example:
Habits can be completed in a few seconds but continue to impact your behavior for minutes or hours afterward. It’s easier to continue what you are doing than start something different.
Many habits occur at decisive moments – choices that are like a fork in the road – and either send you in the direction of a productive day or an unproductive one.
It’s easy to start too big. Excitement inevitably takes over and you end up trying to do too much too soon. To counteract it, use the Two-Minute Rule:
“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
Scale down habits into a two-minute version:
The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. The actions that follow a new habit can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. You need a “gateway habit”.
Find gateway habits that lead to your desired outcome by mapping your goals on a scale from “very easy” to “very hard.”
For example:
Your goal might be to run a marathon, but your gateway habit is to put on your running shoes.
The point is to master the habit of showing up. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist. Make it easy to start and the rest will follow.
The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things. Standardize before you optimize.
The rule also reinforces the identity you want to build. You’re taking the smallest action that confirms the type of person you want to be. One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book. It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.
Once you’ve mastered showing up, scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal with habit shaping.
For example, if you want to become an early rise:
Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard.
Commitment Device: a choice you make in the present that locks in better behavior in the future
For example:
Commitment devices are useful because they take advantage of good intentions before you can fall victim to temptation. They increase the odds that you’ll do the right thing in the future by making bad habits difficult in the present.
The best way to break a bad habit is to make it impractical to do.
The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to automate your future habits. Onetime choices – like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan – deliver increasing returns over time.
Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behavior.
“Every Monday, my assistant would reset the passwords on all my social media accounts, which logged me out on each device. All week I worked without distraction. On Friday, she would send me the new passwords. I had the entire weekend to enjoy what social media had to offer until Monday morning when she would do it again.”
For example:
One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.
A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit—like marking an X on a calendar. Don’t break the chain.
Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress.
Whenever possible, automate measurement. Limit manual tracking to your most important habits. Record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs.
The habit stacking + habit tracking formula is: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].”
For example:
Try to keep your habit streak alive.
Life will interrupt you at some point. Remind yourself of a simple rule: never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible.
Show up on your bad (or busy) days. Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you. Doing something – ten squats or one push-up – is huge. Don’t put up a zero. Don’t let losses eat into your compounding.
Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system. Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing.
To narrow in on the habits and areas that will be most satisfying to you, ask yourself as you explore:
Play a game that favors your strengths.
The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty.
The Goldilocks Rule: “Humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.”
The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. As habits become routine, they become less interesting and satisfying. We get bored. Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.
“What’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else? At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.”
Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.
When a habit is truly important to you, you have to be willing to stick to it in any mood.
The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.
Annual Review
Each December, reflect on the previous year. Tally your habits and reflect on your progress by answering three questions:
Integrity Report
Six months later, conduct a different review. Revisit your core values and question if you have been living in accordance with them. Answer three questions:
Reflection and review is also the ideal time to revisit your identity.
In the beginning, repeating a habit is essential to build up evidence of your desired identity. As you latch on to that new identity, however, those same beliefs can hold you back from the next level of growth.
The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it. Avoid making any single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are.
Redefine yourself such that you get to keep important aspects of your identity even if your particular role changes:
When chosen effectively, your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them.
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