Atomic Habits The 4th Law - Make it Satisfying
Make It Satisfying
Chapter 15 The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
Stephen Luby is a public health worker who moved to Karachi, Pakistan. He tackled the sanitation issue there that was destroying the health of the town due to the spread of infection from overcrowding and contaminated waters and so many other poor health conditions. Luby partnered a soap company that foamed to lather and smelled great and people began washing their hands because of the satisfaction they fault. Within months, the health of everyone, especially children, improved greatly.
The people of Karachi knew washing their hands would help but they would forget or wash their hands effortlessly. It wasn’t about the knowledge, the problem was consistency and providing satisfaction changed everything. Your brain is trained to remember pleasure and repeat the behaviors that lead to pleasure.
ex. Toothpaste commercials sell toothpaste not by pointing out health as much, but rather the satisfaction of smooth and clean teeth and a refreshing mouth.
Rewards are repeated and what is punished is avoided.
Making your habit satisfying increases the likelihood of you following through, which completes the habit. The trick is to look for immediate satisfaction.
Immediate-Return Environment: an environment in which actions instantly deliver clear and immediate outcomes. Our ancestors experienced this more as they were hunting for food and watching out for predators. In the current times, however, we do not experience immediate results often.
Delayed-Return Environment: the choices that we make today will not benefit us immediately and sometimes is takes us years before our actions deliver the intended payoff.
Time Inconsistency: the brain evaluates rewards inconsistently across time and the present is more valued than the future. We prefer quick payoff to long-term payoffs.
It also doesn’t that the consequences of bad habits are delayed and the rewards are immediate because this allows us to have excuses for continuing bad habits. Good habits are reversed because the immediate outcomes is not enjoyable, but the ultimate outcome is positive.
The costs of your good habits are in the present while the cost of your bad habits are in the future, and instant gratification usually wins.
Keep your long-term goals aligned and remember that when a negative habit gives you more immediate pleasure, it may not align with your goals at all.
The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.
People rarely make it to the top of the mountain in their goals where they want to, so the last mile is the least crowded. Turn on some immediate satisfaction to celebrate the good habits you perform and some immediate pain for the bad habits (rubberband around the wrist trick).
Reinforcement: the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of behavior.
Habit Stacking attaches your habit to an immediate cue, telling you when to start while reinforcement attaches your habit to an immediate reward, which makes it satisfying when you complete the habit.
Habits of Avoidance: behaviors you want to stop doing (no frivolous spending or no alcohol this month). Just resisting temptation isn’t the satisfaction you need. Try a loyalty program with yourself. If you want a new leather jacket, then every time you decide not to stop for coffee or pass on a purchase, put that amount of money you would have spent in a separate account to save up.
You want to pick short-term rewards that do not conflict with your long term goals, so if you plan to treat yourself to a bowl of ice cream because you went to the gym that day, you’re conflicting your identity. Choose a bubble bath to relax the body instead.
Once you get into the groove, the intrinsic rewards will be more obvious (like better mood, stress relief, more energy) and they will take over the need of the secondary rewards
Incentive starts a habit, but identity sustains a habit. Making is satisfying will result in change because change is easy when it’s enjoyable.
Chapter 16 How to Stick with Good Habits Every day
Paperclip Strategy: moving a paperclip from one jar to the next after each business call you make or each set of pushups. You physically see the completion of your habits.
Visual Measure: a way to make progress satisfying and provide clear evidence of the successful completely of the habit.
Habit Tracker: simple way to measure whether you did a habit; ie. calender, journal, or app that can be marked off or filled in if you have completed that habit. This method simultaneously makes a behavior obvious, attractive, and satisfying.
Benefit #1: Habit tracking is obvious.
The streak of x’s as we build a series of completed habits encourages us to “not break the chain” and since we are physically writing it down, we do not want to disappoint ourselves and have to leave a space blank. We are also aware when we track things and don’t allow ourselves to just lie to ourselves about our accomplishments that day.
Benefit #2: Habit tracking is attractive.
Progress is the most effective form of motivation and tracking can have an addictive effect on motivation. Tracking provides physical proof of progress, especially for us to look at on our bad days.
Benefit #3: Habit tracking is satisfying.
Tracking is its own reward because we focus on the process rather than the result, and it feels satisfying when we get to mark off another accomplishment each day.
Tracking is a form of immediate and intrinsic gratification.
Habit Stacking + Habit Tracking Formula
After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].
ex. After I finish a set at the gym, I will record it in my workout journal.
What happens when you struggle with a habit? Aim to never miss twice. When a streak ends, start a new one and remember that missing twice starts a new habit. Successful people rebound quickly.
“The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.” -Charlie Munger
Even a bad day at the gym will compound the gains you’ve built up on previous days. Don’t let your losses eat into your compounding. Bad days at the gym still contribute to your identity because you are still “a person who goes to the gym.”
When tracking, don’t be more driven by the number than the purpose because you will experience burnout. Focus on getting meaningful work done rather than just working for a lot of hours. Quality over quantity is important in this case. When we choose the wrong measurement, we get the wrong behavior. Think of non-scale victories in this case. Being able to move one size down in jeans is better than focusing on the pounds we lose.
Chapter 17 How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything
The inverse rule for the negative habit is to make it immediately unsatisfying. Adding a cost to performing the action is a good way to reduce the odds. The punishment must be painful enough and reliably enforced.
Habit Contract: a written or verbal agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through. Find one or two people to act as your accountability partners.
ex. If I do not follow my road map to becoming healthier (low-carb diet, strict macronutrient tracking, maintain and refine workout program), I must dress in business attire to work for a month and not allow myself any casual dress days. That makes breaking my habit dissatisfying.
We care about the opinions of those around us so if we make a contract with someone, we are more likely to avoid disappointment in the end.
*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.