The Four Laws of Behavior Change- PART I
Thorndike And His cats
Heyo 👋 Dave here,
I can't decide if I should open today's conversation with a greeting or something attention-grabbing. The average attention span has decreased over the last decade, and things took a downhill turn when TikTok exploded. Each time I write, I'm always in constant turmoil on how to start.
Welcome! I'm happy you could join me today, as I am going to be unraveling a secret to you today. This is a continuation of our series on Building good habits, and there’s a big reveal at the end of the series. Stick along long enough to find out.
In past episodes, we have laid the foundation needed for building the right habits. Now we’re about to learn about the building blocks of the right habits.
Who was Thorndike and why does this matter?
Thorndike wasn't your regular psychologist. He would go on to be one of the top 10 most-cited psychologists of the 20th century. He conducted an experiment with cats that would lay the foundation for our understanding of how habits form and the rules that guide our behavior.
He placed each cat inside a device known as a puzzle box, and each cat would have to perform a simple act like pressing a lever or pulling at a loop of cord to escape and meet a bowl of treats waiting for them on the other side.
Thorndike tracked the behavior of each cat across many trials. In the beginning, the animals moved around the box at random. But as soon as the lever had been pressed and the door opened, the process of learning began. Gradually, each cat learned to associate the action of pressing the lever with the reward of escaping the box and getting to the food.
During the first three trials, the cat escaped in an average of 1.5 minutes. During the last three trials, it escaped in an average of 6.3 seconds.
WHY YOUR BRAIN BUILDS HABITS
A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The process of habit formation begins with trial and error. Whenever you encounter a new situation in life, your brain has to make a decision. How do I respond to this?
The first time you come across a problem, you’re not sure how to solve it. Like Thorndike’s cat, you’re just trying things out to see what works.
At this time, your brain activity peaks as it is learning and recording your actions. After you stumble upon an unexpected reward, —Wait a minute—that felt good. What did I do right before that? — for example, you’re mentally exhausted from a long day of work, and you learn that watching a movie or death scrolling social media helps you escape!
With time this activity becomes highly automated, and boom, a habit is formed.
Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.
You might event noticed how some office related task that was hard to do at the beginning becomes second nature to you
A few people misunderstand and say things like habits and routines will make my life dull and uninteresting, but in actual fact, it is people who don’t have their habits handled are often the ones with the least amount of freedom because without good financial habits, you will always be struggling for the next dollar…..
We will stop here for today because after writing this episode it ended up becoming 1300 words. Where u in the Traffic that took Lagos by storm on Monday let me know in the comment section below
🪙RESOURCE SECTION
📽️Video of the Week: Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love - Bill Gurley:
📕Book Recommendation :
Atomic Habit- James clear🐦 Follow me on the bird app 👉 Follow Me
🔗Links to Series:
#1
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#4
That was it for today. Have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday!
— Dave♦|TheGrowthProject
PS: Help me out by Liking and sharing this with a friend who'll find it useful 🫶 don’t forget to drop your thoughts in the comment section