Hey, Improvement Pill here I want to welcome you to the second lesson of the
team course if you haven't watched lesson number one I suggest that you
pause this video right now and click on the link in the description below
because if you want to get the most out of this course you're gonna have to
watch all of the videos in today's lesson we're gonna talk about how habits
work or more specifically how they are structured because remember our strategy
for the next couple of months is to focus all of our energy on creating good
new habits and in order for us to do so we're gonna have to understand how they
work psychologists know that there's a
certain structure that all habits follow there's dozens of models out there
depicting this but for the purposes of this video to make things easier for all
of us to understand I'm gonna use my favorite model the habit loop model
which was introduced by Charles Duhigg in his book the power of habit the habit
loop model contains three steps the first step is the Q the Q can come in
many shapes and forms it can be something in your environment like an
object a sound or a smell it could also be a certain time of day a location or
even an emotion whatever it is the Q serves one purpose it tells your brain
that it should start the habit and that's where the next step of the habit
loop comes in the second step of the habit loop is called the routine the
routine is the actual habit itself it's the behavior that you perform so if you
have a bad habit of smoking cigarettes it's the act of taking out your pack
lighting your cigarette and taking a poll this entire process is the routine
the third and final step of the habit loop is the reward the reward can come
in many shapes and forms and it varies from person to person it can even be a
combination of different things for our example of smoking cigarettes it could
be a quick spike in our dopamine levels which nicotine provides it could be a
break from work or it could even be the good feeling that comes from socializing
for people that like to smoke in groups the reason the habit loop is called a
loop is because of the reward if the reward for the habit is satisfying
enough your brain says okay if this cue appears and we do this routine then we
get a good reward and it keeps this information tucked away for next time so
the next time the cue appears your brain says oh look it's that cue again if we
do the same routine as last time we'll get a good reward just like last time
and each and every time you reach the reward this specific loop becomes
stronger and stronger to the point where you no longer even have to think about
the action you just do it when you reach this point where you no longer even have
to think about doing the routine that's when a habit is officially formed and
that's the habit loop now you're probably wondering well this is good
information and all but how exactly can I use this to overcome my own addiction
well this is important because it allows you to discover the cue routine reward
of your current addiction it's important to find out the cues for your addiction
because these are the cues that seem to appear in your life all of the time you
can take these cues and attach them to more positive routines like exercise or
meditation and if we can train our brain to associate these cues with those
routines we will have successfully replaced a bad habit with a good one
we'll dive deeper into this concept throughout the course now it's important
to become aware of what your rewards are because by doing so you'll discover the
driving force behind your addiction let's say for example you realize that
the reward for your pornography habit is that it helps you relieve stress maybe
you have a tough day at work work maybe you had a bad interaction with a girl
you like some of us turn to porn to relieve this sort of stress if that's
the case then we need to address this problem
you're not going to suddenly stop having stress in your life so we need to pick a
habit that can relieve stress a good example of this is the habit of lifting
heavy weights remember habits cannot truly be erased
the cue and reward can't really be changed but we can alter the routine and
that's the idea behind this entire course replace not a race so what I want
you to do right now is to grab a pen and paper and start sketching out the habit
loop for your own addiction the routine is pretty obvious it's the bad habit
itself but the cue can be a little tricky most of the time there's more
than one cue there's a variety of different situations that prompts us to
indulge in our addiction so think of as many as possible and write them down for
example here's a list of the cues that I wrote back in the day when I was in the
process of overcoming my own pornography addiction if I was drunk
if felt rejected if I had my phone or
laptop on my bed before going to sleep now when it comes to identifying the
rewards it can be a bit tricky as well for one every single bad habit that is
addictive involves an increase in dopamine levels but we have to dig
deeper than that and uncover the main rewards that we crave in the book the
power of habit Charles Duhigg looked at his bad habit of eating cookies every
single day at first glance you might think well the reward is probably the
sugar rush or the satisfaction of hunger but Duhigg soon discovered that it was
actually the reward of socializing because he would get up from his desk
walk to the cafeteria buy the cookie and talk to his co-workers he discovered
this by noticing that just eating the cookie wasn't enough to keep him
satisfied he would always want more we need to think about our own addiction
with this attention to detail a bad habit like pornography might provide you
with a sense of validation because to your brain there's hundreds of girls
that want to sleep with you another reward could be the fact that it helps
you fall asleep it could also be something that relieves stress or maybe
it could be something that makes you feel like you accomplished something
there's many many possibilities and the only way to really determine what the
rewards are is by analyzing your own life if you're someone who doesn't feel
the urges to masturbate after spending the entire day having a great time with
your friends then the reward for your addiction might be that it satisfies
your social needs if you don't feel the urges to masturbate when you get a
massage one day after feeling stressed at work your reward for your pornography
addiction might be the fact that it relieves stress so it's really up to you
to think about this part carefully and hypothesize what the rewards are for
your addiction chances are you're not going to finish this diagram in one
sitting you're probably going to think of some cues and come to the realization
about the rewards throughout the next week or so so make sure you add those to
your diagram because it's gonna play an extremely important role throughout this
course in our next lesson we're gonna talk about how long it takes to form a
habit there's a huge misconception going around about this some people say it
takes 21 days some say it takes 90 for the most part they're all wrong the team
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