EP04 (全英) The Power of Habit: 我们先养成习惯，然后习惯塑造我们（英语）
英语冰美式
Key Takeaways:
I. The Habit Loop: How Habits Work
* Core Concept: The habit loop is a three-part neurological process at the core of every habit:
1. Cue: A trigger that tells the brain to go into automatic mode.
2. Routine: The physical, mental, or emotional behavior.
3. Reward: Something that helps the brain determine if the loop is worth remembering.
* Automaticity: Over time, the loop becomes automatic, with the cue and reward intertwining, leading to anticipation and craving.
* Chunking: The brain converts sequences of actions into automatic routines, simplifying daily life. "This process—in which the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine —is known as 'chunking,' and it’s at the root of how habits form."
II. The Golden Rule of Habit Change: A Framework
* Key Principle: "You Can’t Extinguish a Bad Habit, You Can Only Change It." This emphasizes that old habits can't be erased, but must be replaced with new ones.
* Change Formula: To change a habit, maintain the same cue and reward, but alter the routine. HOW IT WORKS: USE THE SAME CUE. PROVIDE THE SAME REWARD. CHANGE THE ROUTINE.
III. Willpower: Its Nature and Strengthening
* Willpower as a Finite Resource: Experiments by Mark Muraven (the "radish and cookies" experiment) demonstrate that willpower is like a muscle. It gets tired when it is used. "By making people use a little bit of their willpower to ignore cookies, we had put them into a state where they were willing to quit much faster,” Muraven told me. “There’s been more than two hundred studies on this idea since then, and they’ve all found the same thing. Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over for other things.”
* Willpower Muscle Can Be Strengthened: Like a muscle, willpower can be strengthened through practice. For example, forcing oneself to go to the gym or start homework strengthens one's ability to regulate impulses.
* Important note about willpower: People often don't even realize they are depleted and exert self-control in subsequent efforts with less motivation as the effort seems too great for the payoff: “Our research suggests that people often don’t even realize that they are depleted and that the first act of self-control affected them. Instead, exerting self-control causes people to be less willing to work hard on subsequent self-control efforts (ultimately, this is a theory of motivation, not cognition)…[E]ven after the most depleting day, people still don’t urinate on the floor. Again, this suggests the motivational aspect of the theory—they lack the motivation to force themselves to do things that are less important to them."
* Autonomy and Willpower: When people feel like they have a choice, their willpower is less depleted. This suggests that external pressures deplete willpower more than making a choice.
IV. Practical Framework for Habit Change
* Step 1: Identify the Routine: Determine the behavior you want to change.
* Step 2: Experiment with Rewards: Try different rewards when the habit cue is triggered to isolate the actual craving driving the behavior. "By experimenting with different rewards, you can isolate what you are actually craving, which is essential in redesigning the habit."
* Step 3: Isolate the Cue: Identify what triggers the habit using the following categories: location, time, emotional state, other people, and immediately preceding action.
* Step 4: Have a Plan: Create a specific plan to replace the old routine with a new, healthier one, using the same cue and reward. “Every day, I will walk to a friend’s desk and talk for 10 minutes.”
* Iterative Process: Habit change may not happen quickly and sometimes requires repeated effort. It's important to see the process as an experiment and adjust plans when they do not work effectively.
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