Day 6 — Make it Satisfying
“Having fun is the best way to learn.’ — Albert Einstein
It’s day six.
I think I have to be proud of myself for making this far. It’s still a long way to go, but I started to get use to with this new habit. Becoming a great writer has always been my dream but I found it very difficult to make it happen. But I guess I made a quite progress so far. Thanks to the book I recently just read, The Atomic Habits.
This is going to be the last part of the discussion on strategies of how to build a habit effectively by James Clear. In the previous articles, I have discussed a lot about three things that need to be conditioned for a new habit: make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it simple.
The last part will be on how to make a habit satisfying. I think it’s important to understand that building a habit is like marrying a person. We want to keep them in our live forever and therefore we have to having fun. The less we enjoy, the less desire to build the new habit.
The idea behind satisfaction
Satisfaction is an integral part of the activity we are doing. The more a certain activity give us the rewards, the more we tend to do it repeatedly. In the previous articles, I have explained this before on how it relates with our biological needs, in particular the dopamine release.
James Clear stated that rewards are the end goal of every habit. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: (1) they satisfy us and (2) they teach us.
We feel satisfy to a certain activity when there is something we earn. Foods and water earn us the the energy to survive. Getting a promotion earn us more income and respect. Getting in shape earn us a great body and dating prospects.
Rewards also teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Our brain is designed as a reward detector. As you we go about our life, our sensory nervous system is continuously monitoring which actions satisfy our desires and deliver pleasure.
Feelings of pleasure and disappointment are part of the feedback mechanism that helps our brain distinguish useful actions from useless ones. Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle. This is where fear, trauma, or addiction might come. Some people see smoking satisfy them because it is a stress reliever for them. However, some people don’t like to smoke due to its smell and smoke. The desire we have are dependent on how our body reacts to it.
Instant rewards vs delay rewards
Not every activities can give us immediate rewards. However, our brand is not designed to enjoying activities that have less immediate rewards. In other words, we might feel burned out easily if we keep doing the same activities that doesn’t make us happy in that moment.
The preference of our brain to priorities the present moment (immediate rewards) other than the future (delay rewards but bigger) should give us a lesson that we can’t rely that much on good intention.
I think it’s common to see how people were really motivated at doing their new habit at first but then end up stopping it because they don’t find any rewards there. Even if they do, they can’t enjoy the present reward they have and have little imagination how the future rewards will give them more than they can imagine.
This is why people keep smoking despite realizing that it’s not good for them in the future. People like to eat junk food because it gives them a great rewards in a short term than eating healthy food.
A study once found that people who get a higher score on their SAT test are less likely to be a drug abuser or less chance to suffer from obesity. The reason is that these people have a better control in delaying their rewards. However, not many people would have that extraordinary gift to be not “happy” to delay the rewards in maintaining the activity we want to build as a habit. It has become a human nature that we tend to choose something that makes us happier immediately. The question is, how to solve it?
Add some fun to it
Yes, you read it right. The best way to enjoy a good habit that that doesn’t give us immediate rewards is by adding some fun parts to it. Everyone knows that exercising is a great way to make us healthy but it’s hard to imagine how we can get the immediate rewards off it.
In the reality, we can only gain the rewards from this kind of activity only after some physical progress we see after awhile. But doing exercises in a span of a week might won’t get us buffed, but it will in several months. Therefore, we need to find things that make us happy in this critical early period to make sure we can get the rewards we are craving in a short term.
What are some examples that can be done to do this? It’s actually varies to one another, but we can start by finding some fun activities while we are doing the habit or after we do a habit. For instance, after finishing writing for today, I usually will buy an ice cream to reward myself. I might will also listening to some music when I write or simply ask my friends to review my writing.
In conclusion, habit needs to be enjoyable for a long term. Little things to add during or after the activity will greatly give us an enjoyment in it.
The most important thing is to not forget to having fun.
Till we meet again!
