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the secret to creating a successful habit stack is selecting the right cue to kick things off.
Don’t ask yourself to do a habit when you’re likely to be occupied with something else.
One way to find the right trigger for your habit stack is by brainstorming a list of your current habits.
Habit stacking works best when the cue is highly specific and immediately actionable.
The 1st Law of Behavior Change is to make it obvious. Strategies like implementation intentions and habit stacking are among the most practical ways to create obvious cues for your habits and design a clear plan for when and where to take action.
People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are.
Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.
We like to think that we are in control. If we choose water over soda, we assume it is because we wanted to do so. The truth, however, is that many of the actions we take each day are shaped not by purposeful drive and choice but by the most obvious option.
visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behavior.
You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.
If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment.
Most people live in a world others have created for them.
Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it.
habits can be easier to change in a new environment.
Trying to eat healthier? It is likely that you shop on autopilot at your regular supermarket. Try a new grocery store. You may find it easier to avoid unhealthy food when your brain doesn’t automatically know where it is located in the store.
When you start mixing contexts, you’ll start mixing habits—and the easier ones will usually win out.
Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.
It is easier to build new habits in a new environment because you are not fighting against old cues.
addictions could spontaneously dissolve if there was a radical change in the environment.
When scientists analyze people who appear to have tremendous self-control, it turns out those individuals aren’t all that different from those who are struggling.
The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.
way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.
If you’re not careful about cues, you can cause the very behavior you want to stop.
You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.
It is hard to maintain a Zen attitude in a life filled with interruptions. It takes too much energy.
One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.
You may be able to resist temptation once or twice, but it’s unlikely you can muster the willpower to override your desires every time.
your energy would be better spent optimizing your environment.
foods that are high in dynamic contrast keep the experience novel and interesting, encouraging you to eat more.
If you want to increase the odds that a behavior will occur, then you need to make it attractive.
dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it.
It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action.
This is one reason the anticipation of an experience can often feel better than the attainment of it.
daydreaming about an upcoming vacation can be more enjoyable than actually being on vacation.
Your brain has far more neural circuitry allocated for wanting rewards than for liking them.
We imitate the habits of three groups in particular:2 The close. The many. The powerful.
We pick up habits from the people around us. We copy the way our parents handle arguments, the way our peers flirt with one another, the way our coworkers get results.
Whenever we are unsure how to act, we look to the group to guide our behavior.
The reward of being accepted is often greater than the reward of winning an argument, looking smart, or finding truth.
The human mind knows how to get along with others. It wants to get along with others. This is our natural mode.
The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us.
If a behavior can get us approval, respect, and praise, we find it attractive.
Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper, underlying motive.
Some of our underlying motives include:fn1 ■ Conserve energy ■ Obtain food and water ■ Find love and reproduce ■ Connect and bond with others ■ Win social acceptance and approval ■ Reduce uncertainty ■ Achieve status and prestige
One person might learn to reduce stress by smoking a cigarette. Another person learns to ease their anxiety by going for a run. Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems you face; they are just the methods you learned to use.
You see a cue, categorize it based on past experience, and determine the appropriate response.
Life feels reactive, but it is actually predictive. All day long, you are making your best guess of how to act given what you’ve just seen and what has worked for you in the past.
You have been sensing the cues the entire time, but it is only when you predict that you would be better off in a different state that you take action.
A craving is the sense that something is missing.
gap between your current state and your desired state provides a reason to act.
