![\"Vintage](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pavlov.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Maneesh Sethi.<\/em><\/p>\n Getting a call from the Travel Channel was the best thing that ever happened for my diet. And I didn\u2019t even need to starve myself on some new wilderness reality show.<\/p>\n In 2011, a production company and the Travel Channel decided to produce a travel show — with myself as the host. It was a really exciting time.<\/p>\n Except for one small caveat.<\/p>\n I was a lot fatter than my pitch video had been. I had about 15 lbs to lose to get in \u201cTV shape\u201d (damn you, superficial American culture!).<\/p>\n So I had a choice: keep the show…or keep the weight.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve run multiple body hacking experiments on my blog, Hack the System<\/a> — but I\u2019ve always had a hard time sticking to a nutritional plan. I knew that “motivation” wouldn\u2019t last – that only works for a few days until I pass by Subway or heaven forbid Taco Bell. I began this journey looking for a \u201cquick fix\u201d to get in shape for the TV show, but what I ended up discovering was the secret to long-term, permanent psychological change.<\/p>\n As I began the descent into my own bad habits, I realized something powerful: your brain doesn\u2019t always have your best interests in mind. In fact, when it comes to behavior change, that gray matter can be quite selfish and primitive. Researchers colloquially call this the \u201cReptilian Brain.\u201d The Reptilian Brain has one function that it likes to perform more than anything else: seek pleasure.<\/p>\n Sounds benign enough, but this thought process doesn\u2019t always play out favorably in the real world, especially when it comes to the habit change process. The truth is that pleasure-based, positive reinforcement doesn\u2019t always work. Not long-term, anyway.<\/p>\n I tried rewarding myself with a small treat, or a massage, or a movie every time I went to the gym, thinking that this alone would encourage me to keep going.<\/p>\n It did work for a while. But then, it stopped.<\/p>\n If I wasn\u2019t in the mood for one of the rewards I\u2019d chosen that day, all my motivation to stick to the diet and training evaporated.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n I\u2019d forgotten to include the final piece of the Reptilian puzzle.<\/p>\n Pain.<\/p>\n Running from painful circumstances is exhausting. It\u2019s annoying. It\u2019s the exact opposite of seeking pleasure. But it\u2019s far more effective for maintaining habits long-term. When tasked with running away from something painful, or towards something pleasurable, you\u2019ll almost always run faster and longer from the source of pain.<\/p>\n Your adrenaline spikes. Your endurance peaks.<\/p>\n Imagine a hungry tiger chasing you, jaws wide open. Did you just become Usain Bolt?<\/p>\n That\u2019s your brain, turning on the adrenaline.<\/p>\n I realized that if I combined the effects of positive reinforcement (rewards) and negative reinforcement (fear of pain), I could create a powerful, balanced formula for habit change. The resulting 3-step formula I developed is central to the habit change algorithm I\u2019ve now taught to thousands of people that allows them to sever the bonds to even their most stubborn habits<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to implement the 3-step habit change formula into your life and create a new habit rapidly:<\/p>\n Not all habits are created equal – and some require much more cognitive power than others.<\/p>\n Simple habits like making breakfast in the morning require relatively few steps: Take out bowl. Pour cereal. Pour milk. Eat.<\/p>\n More complex habits are combinations of several simple habits. Consider all the automation that goes into driving a car. You don\u2019t need to think about how to operate a car because the behaviors are so deeply embedded that it becomes a habit, but it’s actually a fairly complex process.<\/p>\n Think about it:<\/p>\n And when you get to work, you don\u2019t even remember how you got there.<\/p>\n So how do we intentionally automate these processes to make even complex tasks less daunting?<\/p>\n In my case, what was the secret to making myself get to the gym?<\/p>\n Rather than try to force myself every day, I simply created a \u201cmicro-habit\u201d that I knew would lead to the intended behavior. A micro-habit is a single, tiny action that necessarily leads to a bigger action.<\/p>\n If you want to floss your teeth, just floss one tooth. Commit to flossing just ONE tooth \u2014 and make that your goal for the day. If you are able to do that, you\u2019ve accomplished your goal. You can check it off your list.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the trick: Once you perform the micro-habit enough times, it becomes much harder NOT to complete the entire habit than to simply do the whole thing.<\/p>\n In order to ensure that I got to the gym, my micro-habit was simply to swipe my card at the the entrance.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it. Just swipe.<\/p>\n I picked a gym that was on my way back from work and every time I passed it, all I had to do was walk upstairs and swipe my card. After that, if I wanted to, I could go home.<\/p>\n Funny enough, it worked almost immediately. Some days, all I could do was swipe the card and leave. But 90% of the time I found myself saying, \u201cWell…I\u2019m already here…might as well just walk on the treadmill or something.\u201d<\/p>\n An hour later, I\u2019d completed the workout, and it was entirely because of the micro-habit, which took almost zero effort.<\/p>\n What micro-habit could you try?<\/p>\n If you want to run every morning, maybe you keep your running shoes by the bed and simply commit to putting them on in the morning.<\/p>\n If you want to write more, maybe you commit to writing just five words on a sheet of paper every day with breakfast.<\/p>\n If you want to read more, maybe you commit to just reading one paragraph and putting the book down.<\/p>\n It\u2019s totally fine if all you can do is your micro-habit. But you\u2019ll find that more often than not you end up doing much more.<\/p>\n I used this micro-habit formula to build motivation, and then I enlisted the help of an objective accountability partner to check in with daily to ensure that I stayed on track.<\/p>\n Effectively creating and cementing a new habit requires you to hit both levers of the Reptilian Brain.<\/p>\n Negative reinforcement (push) jumpstarts a habit. Positive reinforcement (pull) maintains the momentum.<\/p>\n When I was getting ready for the TV show, I created two opposite levers to motivate myself.<\/p>\n First, I created negative reinforcement<\/b> by making a simple bet with myself: Every time I didn\u2019t complete my micro-habit, I owed $50 to an accountability buddy. I had them check in with me every night.<\/p>\n This sucked, and a few days in a row, I owed money. But paying that money was so painful that it only took a few slip-ups to eliminate the urge to cheat on my diet or skip the gym.<\/p>\n My accountability partner, James, wasn\u2019t too happy to stop receiving checks \u2014 but I\u2019d successfully broken the first plateau of my own motivation and gotten some momentum.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>
\nI decided that, instead of giving up, I would take a deep dive into my own psychology to figure out not just WHAT worked, but WHY it worked.<\/p>\nHow Your Primitive Brain Sabotages You<\/h3>\n
Step 1: Create A \u201cMicro-habit\u201d That Helps Achieve Your Big Goal<\/h3>\n
\n
Step 2: Get Accountable and Use Push-Pull Reinforcement for Your Micro-habit<\/h3>\n