Dean Ornish designed a program that successfully helped 77% of people with heart disease change their lifestyles. (Shortform note: Contrary to Clear, some research suggests that, paradoxically, it’s easier to make a dramatic change than a small one. By showing up, you maintain your desired identity, which gives you pride and confidence to keep making progress. The idea is to make it easy for you to keep showing up for the behavior you want to perform. Clear argues that it’s human nature to only follow through on behaviors that are easy to perform-so, to stay motivated, he recommends making behavior as effortless as possible.Ĭlear clarifies that making behaviors easy doesn’t mean only doing easy things. So if you’re trying to implement a creative habit, like painting every day, you may want to skip this strategy.) Key 3: Response: Decrease the DifficultyĪnother way to improve your habits is to focus on the third stage of habit formation: the response, or the behavior itself. In Drive, author Daniel Pink argues that extrinsic motivation works for routine tasks-but can actually decrease creativity. (Shortform note: Focusing on the reward of a behavior you view as an obligation to make yourself do it is a form of extrinsic motivation: You’re doing the behavior because you want the extrinsic, external reward. Focusing on the reward (the dream job) helps you view your struggles as steps to your goal, which increases your motivation to do the behavior (study). This small change in perspective leads you to focus on the positive elements of the behavior: If you have the opportunity to study, you start to appreciate how lucky you are to be able to work towards your dream job. This turns on your pause-and-plan response, which protects you from making decisions that are bad for you.) 2) Redefine Behaviors as Opportunities Instead of ObligationsĬlear’s second strategy for increasing the appeal of a new habit is to redefine your behaviors: Reframe obligations as opportunities. You might think to yourself, “Why not just play video games without studying?” In The Willpower Instinct, McGonigal explains that you can combat temptations like this by adjusting your physiology with techniques like slowing your breathing. (Shortform note: Only doing something you want to do after something you should do requires a lot of willpower. After I study for an hour, I get to play video games for an hour.” Soon, you’ll crave the study session because you’ll start to associate it with the more pleasurable activities. Try saying to yourself, “After I eat dinner, I will study for an hour. ”įor example, say you struggle to study after dinner because you’d rather play video games. 1) Connect Habits You Should Do to Things You Want to DoĬlear’s first strategy for increasing the appeal of a new habit is to sandwich a desired behavior between something you already do and something you want to do. Clear outlines several ways you can do this, two of which are: (1) associating the new habit with other, positive behaviors and (2) reframing the struggle of a new habit in a positive light. If anticipation drives action, Clear hypothesizes, you should maximize the appeal of a desired behavior so that you anticipate it more. It’s wanting-not experiencing-the reward that drives the behavior.) This is due to dopamine: Your brain expects chocolate to be delicious-so your dopamine transmitters try to convince you that the next bite will be more delicious. If you’re hooked on chocolate, you’ll continue to eat a chocolate bar even if it’s stale. (Shortform note: In The Willpower Instinct, health psychologist Kelly McGonigal demonstrates how much power anticipation can have by describing how desire and dopamine drive action even if you don’t enjoy the reward. It’s this anticipatory surge of dopamine that drives you to act- not the dopamine you feel after you feel pleasure. Now, whenever you see chocolate, your brain will release dopamine because you anticipate the pleasure of eating it. Your brain will release a neurotransmitter called dopamine after you experience the pleasure of eating chocolate. Say you eat chocolate for the first time. You can also make creating habits easier with techniques that affect the second stage of habit formation-the craving.Ĭlear contends that cravings lead to action because you want a reward-not because you enjoy the reward itself. Key 2: Craving: Increase the Appeal of a New Habit
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