Too often, when we find ourselves falling short of goals we have set, we start to question what is wrong with us.\u00a0 We may even label ourselves with negative names such as lazy, stupid, or just plain crazy.\u00a0 In our attempt to move forward, we may delve\u00a0into trying to understand how we became so incompetent.\u00a0 However, for most people this self-degradation does little to help us gain ground.\u00a0 On the contrary, it usually leads us more deeply into a cycle of experiencing endless unmet goals and resultant feelings of worthlessness.<\/p>\n
Turning toward a scientific model of habits will help you understand how to design an action plan that is more likely to lead to successful long-term change.\u00a0 The book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business<\/em> seeks to explain the science behind the habits that shape our lives (Charles Duhigg, 2012).\u00a0 The fact that the book was on the NY Times\u2019 Best Sellers list for 37 weeks and was translated into 31 languages lets us know how strong our interest is in understanding what makes habits tick and what makes them stop.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with a description of how habits are formed.\u00a0 This is where the field of behavioral psychology comes in.\u00a0 The concepts of operant and classical conditioning are key to understanding habit formation.\u00a0 As far back as 1937, BF Skinner touted the need for functional analysis of behavior and its reinforcing consequences. His ideas developed into the concept of operant conditioning. The idea is that every behavior we engage in is reinforced in some way.\u00a0 Initially, when we carry out an action, we experience a consequence.\u00a0 This outcome may be positive, negative, or neutral.\u00a0 We very quickly develop an association with the behavior and its reward or punishment.\u00a0 At the same time, we also begin to make other associations with the reward or punishment that become classically conditioned, a term coined by Pavlov and explained below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s explore some common examples to see how operant and classical conditioning may play out with our behavior.<\/p>\n Consider a scenario in which you have set the intention to become more physically active.\u00a0 More specifically, you tell yourself that you will add some form of exercise after work every day.\u00a0 However, that week you find your plan thwarted\u00a0 several times: first, coworkers invite you for happy hour; on another occasion you work late to finish a project; and later in the week you are diverted\u00a0by news of a sick child and head straight home.\u00a0 Now, your goal is likely even further from your reach than when you set it.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem is that you have unintentionally reinforced other ways of being.<\/p>\n In operant conditioning, there are two broad categories of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. It is important to understand that, in this context, “positive” and “negative” are not synonymous with “good” and “bad.” Instead, think of “positive” as adding, “negative” as subtracting, and both as making a certain behavior (or, as in this example, lack thereof) more likely in the future. Not working out was positively reinforced by the addition of\u00a0pleasant feelings and increased hormones of socializing and getting more work completed.\u00a0 It\u2019s also possible that skipping your workout was negatively reinforced by removing (subtracting) guilt associated with going to do something for yourself instead of spending time with the children.<\/p>\n This pattern can be changed by setting up some strong reinforcements for your target behavior until it becomes intrinsic.\u00a0 So, tell your friends you would love to meet them on a different night after you have met your fitness goal\u00a0.\u00a0 With regard to work, set some simple but important tasks you can accomplish during or shortly after your workout.\u00a0 For example, perhaps you can listen to podcasts or use a voice recorder to brainstorm while you are on the elliptical. Lastly, when your original plan is hindered by the more immediate task of needing to assist a loved one, remind yourself that taking care of yourself will help you continue to take care of others in the long run.<\/p>\n To make changing habits even harder, there is another form of conditioning at play as well.\u00a0 Under the psychological theory of classical conditioning, we develop associations with a variety of environmental stimuli.\u00a0 Another way to think of this is the cues that occur when we are engaging in behavior.\u00a0 In Pavlov\u2019s experiments we learned that a dog who heard a bell every time he ate eventually salivated to the sound of the bell even when the food was not present.\u00a0 That is, the food was an unconditioned stimulus that naturally caused the unconditioned response of salivation. However, pairing the food with the sound of the bell (an otherwise neutral stimulus) caused the sound to become a conditioned stimulus leading to salivation even in the absence of the food (so now, salivation had become a conditioned response to the bell). The reference to \u201cPavlov\u2019s Dog\u201d is pertinent as we think about environmental stimuli that are associated with behaviors we want to change.<\/p>\n To understand how classical conditioning may play a role in your habits, let\u2019s reflect on the following situation.\u00a0 You are trying to get some work done from home, and you are having a hard time focusing because of many distractions.\u00a0 When you get up to clear your head, you see some cookies and start snacking away.\u00a0 If you do this a few times, the simple act of sitting down to work may begin to trigger a craving for cookies, even without the stimulus of actually seeing the cookies\u00a0.<\/p>\n One might notice that these patterns are so complex that both classical and operant conditioning may be factors in increasing the same set of behaviors.\u00a0 That is, you have likely also positively reinforced getting up to eat a cookie with the addition of pleasurable sensations in the body from the sugar you have ingested. Moreover, you may even have been unaware that you were hungry.\u00a0 Now, you have negatively reinforced the behavior by taking away the hunger.\u00a0 With either type of conditioning, this tendency to stop what you are doing and get up to get a cookie is likely to continue to reoccur and develop into a habit.<\/p>\n In summary, the principles of conditioning predict that individuals will engage in behaviors that reproduce positive responses such as feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. \u00a0Furthermore, the cues associated with those behaviors will become triggers for continued behavior.\u00a0 This understanding becomes important when you set a personal goal such as snacking less to lose weight.\u00a0 In order to be successful, it is imperative to take inventory \u00a0of your cycle of conditioning so you can more effectively intervene in it.\u00a0 Part two of this article will feature further instructions on how to change this habit loop!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Too often, when we find ourselves falling short of goals we have set, we start to question what is wrong with us.\u00a0 We may even label ourselves with negative names such as lazy, stupid, or just plain crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[25,21,22,20,8,19],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goal-setting","tag-30-day-challenge","tag-change","tag-conditioning","tag-habits","tag-mindfulness","tag-mindfulness-meditation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YyuX-5D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}