Four Steps To Behaviour Change

In 1898, a psychologist named Edward Thorndike did an experiment that helped us figure out how habits form and what rules we follow in our daily lives. Thorndike wanted to learn more about how animals act, so he began working with cats.

He would put each cat in a "puzzle box." The box was made so the cat could get through a door by doing something simple, like pulling on a loop of string, pressing a lever, or stepping on a platform. One box, for example, had a lever that, when removed, opened a door on the side of the box. Once the door was open, the cat could run out quickly and go to a food bowl.

As soon as they were put in the box, most cats tried to get out. They would stick their noses in the corners and put their paws through holes. After a few minutes of looking around, the cats accidentally pulled the magical lever, which would open the door and let them out.

Thorndike watched how each cat behaved in many different tests. At first, the animals moved around the box without rhyme or reason. But the learning process started once the lever was pulled and the door opened. Over time, each cat learned that if they pulled the lever, they could get out of the box and get to the food.

After twenty to thirty times of doing this, it became so natural and automatic that the cat could get away in just a few seconds. For example, Thorndike wrote, "Cat 12 did the act the following times:

160 seconds, 30 seconds, 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 15, 28, 20, 30, 22, 11, 15, 20, 12, 10, 14, 10, 8, 8, 5, 10, 8, 6, 6, 7,."

During the first three times, it took the cat an average of 1.5 minutes to get away. On average, it got away in 6.3 seconds over the last three times. As each cat got better at what it did, it made fewer mistakes and did things faster and more automatically. The cat stopped making the same mistakes and went straight to the solution.

Thorndike used his research to explain how people learn. He said, "Behaviors that lead to good results tend to be repeated, while those that lead to bad results are less likely to be repeated." His work is a great place to start talking about how habits develop in our own lives. It also answers some basic questions, such as, "What are habits?" Why does the brain even bother to make them?

A habit is a behaviour you do so often that you no longer have to think about it. Trial and error is the first step in making a new habit.

When you face something new in life, your brain has to decide what to do. How should I answer this? When you first encounter a problem, you don't know how to solve it. Like Thorndike's cat, you're just trying things out to see what works.

During this time, there is much activity in the brain's nerve cells. You are thinking carefully about what to do and deciding how to act. You're learning many new things and figuring out what they all mean. The brain is busy figuring out what the best thing to do is.

Sometimes, you find a solution by accident, like a cat pressing on a lever. You're worried, and you find that going for a run makes you feel better. After a long day at work, playing video games makes you feel better. You keep exploring and exploring, and then BOOM! You get something.

When you find a surprise reward, you change your plan for the next time. Your brain starts making notes right away about what happened before the reward. Hold on that felt good. What was the last thing I did?

All human behaviour is based on this feedback loop: try, fail, learn, try again. With practice, the actions that don't help get better and those that do get stronger. That could become a habit.

When you keep running into the same problem, your brain starts to figure out how to solve it independently. Your habits are just intuitive ways to deal with the daily issues and stresses you have to deal with. "Habits are just reliable solutions to problems that keep coming up in our environment," writes behavioural scientist Jason Hreha.

As habits are formed, the brain's activity level goes down.

You learn to focus on the signs that indicate success and ignore the rest. When something like this happens again, you'll know exactly what to look for. No longer do we have to look at a situation from every angle. Your brain skips the trial-and-error process and instead comes up with a rule: "If this, then that." When the time is right, your brain can automatically follow these mental scripts. Now, you want to run whenever you feel stressed. You grab the video game controller as soon as you leave work. A choice that used to take work is now made for you. It has become a habit.

Habits are mental short-cuts that you learn as you go through life. In a way, a habit is just a reminder of what you did in the past to solve a problem. You can remember this solution and use it automatically whenever the conditions are right. The brain remembers the past mainly to figure out what will work in the future.

The conscious mind is the slowest part of the brain, so making habits is constructive. It can only think about one thing at a time. So, your brain is always trying to keep your conscious attention on the most important task. The conscious mind likes to give undertakings that can be done automatically to the nonconscious mind whenever possible. When a habit forms, this is precisely what happens. Habits reduce the amount of work your brain has to do and free up mental space so you can focus on other things.

Even though habits work, some people don't see what they're good for. This is the argument: "Will my habits make my life boring? I don't want to get stuck in the way of life I don't like. Doesn't having so many routines take away from the spontaneity and excitement of life?"

Hardly. Such questions set up a false dichotomy. They make you feel like you have to choose between getting into good habits and being free. In reality, they help each other out.

Freedom is not taken away by habits. They make it. The people with the least freedom are often the ones who don't have their habits under control. You'll always struggle to get by if you don't have good money habits. If you don't take care of your health, you'll always feel tired. You'll always feel behind if you don't have good ways to learn. If you have to choose simple things like when to work out, where to write, and when to pay the bills, you won't have as much time for freedom. Making life's basics easier is the only way to give your mind the space it needs for free-thinking and creativity.

On the other hand, when you have your habits down cold and life's basics taken care of, your mind is free to focus on new challenges and solve the next set of problems. You can do more of what you want in the future if you build good habits now.

There are four simple steps to building a habit: a cue, a craving, a response, and a reward. By breaking it down into these essential parts, we can learn what a habit is, how it works, and how to change it for the better.

All habits go through the same four stages: the cue, the craving, the action, and the reward.

Every habit is built on this four-step pattern, and your brain goes through these steps in the same order every time.

The first thing is the signal. The cue tells your brain to start doing something. It is a piece of information that tells you what you will get. Our prehistoric ancestors noticed signs that told them where to find essential things like food, water, and sex. Today, we spend most of our time learning signs that point to secondary rewards like money and fame, power and status, praise and approval, love and friendship, or a sense of personal satisfaction.

Your mind is always looking at your internal and external world for cues about where rewards are. Because the cue is the first sign that a reward is coming, it makes us want that reward.

The second step is giving in to your cravings, which drive every habit. We have no reason to act if we don't feel motivated or want to make a change. What you want isn't the habit but the way it makes you feel. You don't want a smoke, you want the feeling of relief it gives you. You don't brush your teeth because you want to, but because you like how clean your mouth feels afterwards. You don't want to watch TV. Instead, you want to be entertained. Every desire comes from a need to change something about yourself. This is a critical point that we will talk about in more depth later.

Different people have different cravings. In theory, any piece of information could make someone want something. Still, in reality, not everyone is moved by the same things. For a gambler, the sound of slot machines can be a powerful cue that makes them want to play right away. The jingles and chimes of a casino are just background noise for someone who doesn't gamble very often. Cues don't mean anything until they're understood.

What turns a cue into a craving is how the observer thinks, feels, and reacts to it.

The answer is the third step. The actual habit you do is the response, which can be a thought or an action. Whether or not you respond depends on how motivated you are and how much trouble the behaviour causes. If you don't want more physical or mental effort than something requires, you won't do it. Your answer will also depend on how good you are. It sounds simple, but you can only form a habit if you can do it. You're out of luck if you want to dunk a basketball but can't jump high enough to reach the hoop.

Lastly, the answer gives a reward. Every habit is meant to lead to a reward. The cue tells you to pay attention to the reward. Wanting the reward is what the craving is all about. The answer is about getting the prize. We go after rewards because they do two things: they make us happy, and they teach us something.

The first goal of rewards is to stop you from wanting something. Yes, rewards help in their own right. You get the energy you need to live from food and water. When you get a promotion, you earn more money and respect.

Getting in shape is suitable for your health and chances of meeting someone. But the immediate benefit of rewards is that they satisfy your need to eat, gain status, or win approval. At least for a short time, rewards make us happy and stop us from wanting something else.

Second, rewards show us which things are essential to remember for the future. Your brain looks for rewards. As you go about your daily life, your sensory nervous system keeps track of which things make you happy and satisfy your needs. Feelings of happiness and sadness are part of the feedback system that helps your brain figure out which actions are helpful and which are not. Reward closes the feedback loop and finishes the cycle of forming a habit.

If any of the four steps aren't done well, the behaviour won't become a habit. If you get rid of the trigger, your habit will never begin.

You won't be as motivated to act if you take away the need. If you make something hard to do, you won't be able to do it. And if the reward doesn't give you what you want, you won't do it again in the future. The behaviour won't happen if the first three steps don't happen. If you don't have all four, you won't do something again.