Atomic Habits The 2nd Law - Make It Attractive
Make It Attractive
Chapter 8 How to Make a Habit Irresistible
The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely you’ll make it a habit. A big factor of making habits attractive is engaging your dopamine response. Regardless of being about o experience the pleasure of incorporating a habit into to your life, without dopamine present, desire to make a change dies and without desire, actions stop.
Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Motivation to act increases as dopamine rises. Dopamine is released not only when you experience the pleasure, but also when you anticipate it. The anticipation is what get us to take action. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.
This is the difference in “wanting” vs. “liking”. Therefore, you have to find a way to anticipate the pleasure in order to make the habit more attractive.
Temptation Bundling: linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
Add something that you need to do to something that you want to do. (ex. You can only watch Netflix while you are riding your stationary bike.) The reward gets associated with the cue which makes what you have to do more attractive.
Formula: Habit Stacking + Temptation Bundling
After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].
ex. If you want to check Facebook, but you need to exercise more:
After I pull out my phone, I will do 10 burpees (need).
After I do 10 burpees, I will check Facebook (want).
Chapter 9 The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits
“A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.” -Laszlo Polgar
This man trained his three daughters to be chess experts by making it a part of their daily lives and surrounding them with all things chess and they grew up truly enjoying chess and became three of the greatest chess players in the world at a super young age.
Humans want to belong so by adding yourself into a group of people/friends who have the same habits you would like to form in your own life, you are more likely to be successful. The same goes for bad habits; surrounding yourself with those who have bad habits is more likely to result in you picking up or continuing with the same bad habits as well.
We imitate habits of three groups in particular:
The close — Proximity has a powerful effect, not only in physical environment, but also social environment. Join a culture where your desired behavior is normal and you already have something in common with the group. Shared identity reinforces personal identity so remain in the group even after goals are met to continue to push forward.
The many — The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual. Change is unattractive when your habits challenge the tribe, but when changing your habits to fit in with the tribe, change becomes attractive.
The powerful — Humans pursue power, prestige, and status and we want respect, approval, admiration, and status. When you are desiring to create a habit that is valued by your culture and results in gaining respect, approval, admiration, and status, the habit becomes more attractive.
Chapter 10 How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
A craving is a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive, like some of the ones listed below:
Conserve energy
Obtain food and water (ex. Wanting tacos)
Find love and reproduce (ex. Using dating sites)
Connect and bond with others (ex. Browsing Facebook)
Win social acceptance (ex. Posting on instagram)
Reduce uncertainty (ex. Searching google)
Achieve status and prestige (ex. Playing video games)
However, your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems in the underlying motives category, they are merely methods that you have used in the past and have learned from.
The cause of your habit is the prediction of what will happen. Thus, life feels reactive, but it is actually predictive. When you predict that you would be better off if you make a change, you take action.
A craving is the sense that something is missing and wanting to satisfy that craving is the desire to change your internal state. You don’t necessarily want to eat the whole bag of chips or to binge watch Netflix, you actually want to feel different and you think satisfying a craving will make that happen, but there are other ways to do that that are more beneficial in the long-term.
Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings.
Reprogramming your brain to enjoy hard habits
Change the phrase “I have to” to “I get to”
Reframing your habits to highlight the benefits rather than the drawbacks is quick and easy and may change our entire mindset.
Saving money isn’t fun when you think about what you cannot buy. But realize that living below your means now can increase your future means and give you more money to spend next month.
Mindset shifts are magical, but they can help you change the feelings you associate with some behaviors.
Motivation Ritual: practice associating your habits with something you enjoy, then you can use that cue whatever you need a bit of motivation. (ex. If you don’t feel motivated to start your work in the morning, make it a ritual to listen to a favorite song or meditate before work and then you’ll Pavlov yourself into desiring to start work whenever you listen to that song or meditate.) Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
*this summary is based on the writings in the Atomic Habits book by James Clear. I am not the owner of this summary and do not take credit for the ideas and writings in this post.
For more info, visit the Atomic Habits Website.