According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits,
“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.”
The Second Law of behavior change, Make it Attractive, comes into play here because the more attractive something is to us the greater chance that we will want to repeat it.
The biological similarity that all habits have in common is they all produce a dopamine spike. This is the neurological process that drives craving and desire.
Clear states that, “Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop.”
The habits that seem to take hold are the ones, “associated with a higher level of dopamine.”
Interestingly in studies with mice they actually become more addicted to sugar than to cocaine. That’s the power of the dopamine rush produced by a piece of chocolate.
Remarkably, this dopamine release not only happens by the action itself, but also simply through the anticipation of the action.
When your brain realizes that the reward is in sight it actually motivates you to act.
“It is the anticipation of a reward-not the fulfillment of it-that gets us to take action.”
Desire drives behavior, which is preceded by anticipation.
In other words, “the craving leads to the response.”
Now in knowing this what rewards can I tie to behaviors to motivate me to establish better habits?
What I have learned about myself is that I don’t necessarily respond to outward rewards. I think I am more intrinsically motivated. I find a reward in completely a task that I have pushed myself to accomplish. Actually writing for thirty-one days, which will be finished tomorrow, is a reward itself.
That being said, I want to take time to reflect more on the biological reason for some of my choices that I do not seem to understand. Clear reminds us that we still have the brains of our ancestors, but we have many more temptations put before us in our daily lives.
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