Replace Old Habits with New Better Ones

 

I am currently reading a fascinating book by Charles Duhigg entitled Why we do what we Do in Life and Business.  Charles is an award winning reporter with an American newspaper and his book gives a fascinating insight to the workings of our brains.

Some 50 years ago, scientists wired the brain receptors of mice (whose DNA resemble human DNA by some 80%) to see which brain activity fires up and when. What they found most fascinating is that when they do a certain task for the first time, their brain activity is piqued and remains at high levels all throughout that activity.

Similarly for humans, we are creatures of 'habit' and are brains essentially lazy. Large or small, with high IQ, emotional intelligence et al, if we do not form good habits, and keep learning new things, we will slowly forget to 

a) rationalise

b) apply logic

c) memorise and internalise

d) deduce

e) intuit

Above is the Habit Loop. It is a simple 3 step process. 

Cue 

This is the trigger. It either occurs naturally, such as hunger it is induced (for example the ringing of the school bell) 

We then follow a routine  which has been evolved over the million of years, we go looking for food.

Once we  satisfy our hunger, we are satiated and have received our reward.  

This simple 3 step process has been  studied, analysed, adapted and refined by the smartest brains in diverse industries such as consumer marketing, food science,  high fashion marketing and even in oil companies (!). 

The basal ganglia internalization concept is so novel that 99.99% of our population are internalizing our routes from home to office and return without even recognizing the triggers.

Case in point ; 

Have you ever been drunk and still managed to make it home, without even understanding how you reached home ? I hear a chorus of 'yesses' in the cyberspace background.

See, if you are out at, say your favourite watering hole. You have been there (say) 5 or 6 times. Most days you are lucid and clear when you make your way back (I hope you are not driving as DUI can get you a big fine or even a short jail sentence ; get a drink valet).

So, the first trigger is this. Gosh its 11 pm, time to go home, I got work tomorrow. Go Home

So you make your way home, after a glass of beer. You decide to take the MRT or subway home, and you are in Chinatown, so, you are aware that you go to the subway station and subconciously your eyes pick up cues as to where to turn left or right, cross the street and which entrance is the subway and so on. This is the Routine which you are internalizing for the first time.

You also have your Passion Card (EZLink card for public transport) and proceed to the correct line.In time your train arrives, you stroll, or stumble, slouch into the train seat, have a slight nap, and get off at your station, walk up, turn left, cross 2 street intersections and you reach your HDB flat or condominium.

This is when you make your way home for the first time and are only slightly 'high'. 

You reach home, and you feel so relieved. You can undress, unwind, have a hot shower, maybe take a good dump before you hit the sack, slightly inebrieated, and all is well with the world. That is your Reward.  

So, your brain receptors have been at heightened levels all this while. In will be internalized.

The more the number of times you repeat this process, you will get more and more familair that going and returning home from your favorite pub becomes a habit. 

In the end, the habit develops into a craving for you, so much so that  you set fixed dates and times just to go to the pub say every Friday night from 6pm till 11 pm.

So, the pubs advertise the fact that there are Happy Hours, Friday Night Madness, World Cup, EPL, F1 and any excuse to get of the house night for a drink or two.

Your craving is so well developed that you subconsciously do it and get rewarded even before there is any marketing or media promotion adviertising (for today) - say - Mid Autumn Festival Night at Che Suzette and all drinks are 1 for 1 form 5 pm to 8pm.

You ultimately develop a drinking habit and it may ultimately develop into an unhealthy addiction. You will then have a serious problem.

Now, coming back to the times you end up drunk. How do you still reach home, hit the sack and the next day, miraculously wonder how you made it home in one piece ??

Its the Basal Ganglia Internalization which kicks in. In your drunken state, you still mutter OMG, I need to go home after you have had, say, 7 - 8 beers.

Subconsciously, your eyes detect visual cues and landmarks when you were sober, and you slowly make your way, turn in the correct direction, cross the correct street intersections, and all the way to your block. 

You manage to go home with the minimum of brain activity being activated. Your basal cognitive functions sight, visual cues and some spatial awareness are activated. The higher level functioning such as deduction, logic, rationalization and memory are temporarily non usable and non functioning.

You reach home, fumble for your house key, go in, tip toe past the wife's side of the bed and slide into bed.

The next day you have no recollection of how you got home safely.

Thanks to the Force of Habit (Process repeated a few times, it becomes internalized).