'Why we do what we do and how to change'!?

Observations of human habits suggests that 40-50% of our time is comprised of habits. They save time and help us organise ourselves quickly at important stages of each day.

The subtitle of the accompanying book sounds inviting doesn't it? But even the author is not claiming it is easy to change. Rather the claim is that it can be done.

How many habits do we have that we would like to get rid of? How many habits do we have that we would like to have but don't seem to be able to acquire? 

The book The power of habit: Why we do what we do and how to change by Charles Duhigg (2012) featured among other things a fascinating list of examples to illustrate his ideas some of which are presented in this YouTube below.

Remember back -if you able to- to when you first used to hear the Pepsodent toothpaste jingle, ('You'll wonder where the yellow went/ When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!/ Pepsodent, Pepsodent/ Mint-fresh Pepsodent!'). This toothpaste was almost dumped as a consumer item back in the 1920s but by the 30s, 40s and onwards into the 50s it was selling extraordinarily well. And at least one reason was because it created a minty taste associated with a clean feel of one's teeth to the tongue. Taste, sensory feel and smell can become powerful rewards for actions.   

Brushing teeth with toothpaste has now become a twice daily habit for most people when in former generations much cheaper substances like common salt and mint leaves from the garden were used!

Advertisers have been smart in using a cue- routine- reward- feedback sequence in getting consumers to buy their products. The 'reward' then reinforces the power of the cue to prime us to repeat the sequence. We can imagine this sequence on a clock-face with the cue at '9', the routine at '12', the reward at '3' and the feedback in the sweep of the seconds hand from '3' to '9'.

The cue is sometimes a particular clock-time but more often it is a sensory-feeling such as hunger, thirst (dryness of mouth), boredom, isolation, irritation.  

The routine is an order of smaller acts that comprises the larger routine. For example, if you have cereal and an egg for breakfast you will have a routine that you do through each morning upon rising in order to get your meal.

Rewards we enjoy from our breakfast are the sense of feeling less hungry, the taste of the food itself and our sense of feeling full; if we've eaten a healthy breakfast we can also evaluate the good our breakfast is doing in maintaining good health. The reward reinforces our breakfasting habit and provides feedback for raising the chances that a similar pattern may recur (if habit is not as yet well established). After a number of repetitions, we can be said to have developed a HABIT. 

An important centrepiece lies at the fulcrum of the process (according to Duhigg) which engenders the entire circular movement which is DESIRE. 

Human desire being human is subject to divine ordinance; this means that desire is subject to norms ('oughts'). Desires are not neutral but for shalom creating ought to be allowed/restrained according to love of God and neighbour.

It's not by accident that Duhigg puts 'desire' at the centre of his model because this viewpoint fits with the consumer mindset which dominates the western world. In this idolatrous worldview which deifies wealth one doesn't just create goods. One creates the desire for the goods that one is creating/selling.
  

Good and bad habit formation will be our focus next time.