Make a new habit irresistable.

Here is today’s Game and what’s going on.

Here is what I discovered today in our Dadly Daily Declaration readings from Chapter 8 of Atomic Habits by James Clear.  The title of this chapter is “How to Make a Habit Irresistable.”

Today’s chapter starts explaining the Second Law of Behavior Change: Make It Attractive. Here are a few highlights from today’s readings:

• Humans are prone to fall for exaggerated versions of reality.
• That’s why if we make an opportunity to be more attractive, the more likely it is to be habit forming.
• If you want to increase the odds that a behavior will occur, then you need to make it attractive. We can make any habit more enticing by making it irresistible.
• Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit-forming (e.g. eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media) is associated with higher levels of dopamine.
• Concerning habits, dopamine is released not only when you can experience pleasure but also when you anticipate it.  For example, gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right before they place a bet, not after they win.
• Whenever you predict that an opportunity will be rewarding, your levels of dopamine spike in anticipation.  And whenever dopamine rises, so does your motivation to act.

• The reward system that is activated in the brain when you receive a reward is the same system that is activated when you anticipate a reward.
• A strategy known as temptation bundling can help with forming new habits. You’re more likely to find behavior attractive if you get to do one of your favorite things at the same time.
  • For example, say you want to hear the latest ESPN reports but you need to get in shape. Using temptation bundling, you could only read ESPN and watch Sportscenter at the gym.
  • Basically, you’re using your more probably behaviors (watching SportsCenter) to reinforce less probable behaviors (working out at the gym).  This is known as Premack’s Principle.
• Another thing you can do is combine temptation bundling with habit stacking.
  • The habit stacking + temptation bundling formala follows:
    1. After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
    2. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].
  • If you want to read the news, but need to express more gratitude:
    1. After I get my morning coffee, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened yesterday (need).
    2. After I say one thing I’m grateful for, I will read the news (want).
• Doing the thing you need to do means you get to do the thing you want to do.

Those gems lead us to today’s Dadly Daily Declaration:

We need to make our habits attractive because it is the expectation of a rewarding experience that motivates us to act in the first place.

It is the anticipation of a reward – not the fulfillment of it – that gets us to take action.