#understandingbehvaiour

[ogentities]

Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits. pt 1

-expert from atomic habits- 

how in shape in or out of shape you are? a result of your habits.

how happy or unhappy you are? a result of your habits.

how successful or unsuccessful you are? a result of your habits. 

what you repeatedly do for example what you spend your time thinking about and doing each day.... ultimately forms the person you are, the things you believe, and the personality that you portray. 

How habits work

the process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps : cue, craving, response and reward. Your brain runs through these steps in the same order each time. 

       Cue -  triggers your brain to initiate a behaviour. it is a bit of information that predicts a reward. Today we spend most of our time learning cues that predict secondary rewards like money and fame, power and status, praise and approval, love and friendship, or a sense of personal satisfaction. (of course, these pursuits also indirectly improve our odds of survival and reproduction, which is the deeper motive behind everything we do. Your mind is continuously analysing your internal and external environment for hints of where rewards are’re located.)  because the cue is the first indication that we’re close to a reward, it naturally leads to a craving.

    Cravings - cravings are the second step of the habit loop... the motivational force ehind every habit. without some level of motivation or desire/ without craving a change we have no reason to act. every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state. 

   The Response - whether a response occurs depends on how motivated your are and how much friction is associated with the behaviour. If a particular action requires more physical or mental effort than you are willing to expend, then you wont do it. Your response also depends on your ability. It sounds simple, but a habit can occur only if you are capable of doing it. 

   Reward - The end goal of a habit. the cue is about noticing the reward and the response is about obtaining the reward. we chase rewards because they serve us two purposes 1.they satisfy us and 2.they teach us. rewards satisfy your cravings... at least for a moment, rewards deliver contentment and relief from craving. reward also teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector. The 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. 

If a behaviour is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit. the entire process is completed in a split second and we use it again and again without realising everything that has been packed into the previous moment.