Last time we looked into Habit Formation process here:

https://www.seedpublication.com/articles/habits-for-goals

We continue this topic, exploring the magic behind proper rewards setting and how it can affect the result of us sticking to the new action.

Habits are as powerful as they are mysterious.

Most of our day-to-day behaviors, both good and bad, are the product of habit formation. So much of what we do is operating on auto-pilot -- with contextual cues in the environment triggering the “release” of a pre-programmed set of behaviors that happen largely outside our conscious awareness.

A hyper-efficient and economical mode of acting that doesn’t require the high price tag of conscious thought. It’s because of habits that we are able to reserve our brain power for the more pressing tasks that come up. Those which enhance our learning potential.

The element of mystery comes into play when we think about how habits happen. The basic components of habit formation have eluded behavioral and neuroscientists for decades; only recently have we begun to get a handle on the underlying brain-based mechanisms.

Findings show that the process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.

Let’s talk about the final step. Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: 

1. They satisfy us

   and

2. They teach us.

The first purpose of rewards is to satisfy your craving. Yes, rewards provide benefits on their own. Food and water deliver the energy you need to survive. Getting a promotion brings more money and respect. Getting in shape improves your health and your dating prospects. But the more immediate benefit is that rewards satisfy your craving to eat or to gain status or to win approval. At least for a moment, rewards deliver contentment and relief from craving.

Second, rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector. As you go about your life, your sensory nervous system is continuously monitoring which actions satisfy your desires and deliver pleasure. Feelings of pleasure and disappointment are part of the feedback mechanism that helps your brain distinguish useful actions from useless ones. Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle.

Our brains love to record victories and see progress so we’ve taken the process of building a proper reward and turned it into a simple three-step process that you can immediately implement: specificity, emotions, anticipation.

1. Specificity - describe the reward clearly and in detail.

2. Emotions - impressions work better than material objects.

3. Anticipation - Visualization is a great tool for keeping dopamine. Consider setting the picture of your award as your desktop picture.

Sprints are a great way to turn an endless game of building habits into a streak of matches.

For two-three weeks, you can fight with yourself and for yourself to achieve your goals and develop habits. At the end of the sprint, you evaluate your progress and arrange an awards ceremony. It is better to plan a reward in advance, so that its anticipation gives dopamine motivation in difficult moments. The more specific and emotional it is, the better. Impressions usually ignite significantly more material objects.

Bear in mind.

If a behavior is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit. Eliminate the cue and your habit will never start. Reduce the craving and you won’t experience enough motivation to act. Make the behavior difficult and you won’t be able to do it. And if the reward fails to satisfy your desire, then you’ll have no reason to do it again in the future. Without the first three steps, a behavior will not occur. Without all four, a behavior will not be repeated.

Good luck to you!

By Gyuzel Akhmetova MA in Foreign Languages.

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