‘To get [your habits] to stick you need to feel immediately successful’ – Atomic Habits, Chapter 15 Notes

Posted on: July 9, 2022

Post Category: Book Notes

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About #onepageonepoint

#onepageonepoint aims to summarise new ideas from books on personal and professional development – with (approximately) one point for each page. Read more about this project here.

Today for #onepageonepoint, we have summary notes for Atomic Habits – for chapter 15 – ‘The Cardinal Rule of Behaviour Change’.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learn more about the book, click here.

Chapter 15: The Cardinal Rule of Behaviour Change

• Stephen Luby partnered with Procter & Gamble to supply Karachi (Pakistan) with Safeguard soap, which was widely adopted after making the soap lather and smell good. Luby comments: “It is a lot easier for people to adopt a product that provides a strong positive sensory signal, for example the mint taste of toothpaste, than it is to adopt a habit that does not provide pleasurable sensory feedback” – hence the fourth and final law of behaviour change: make it satisfying.

• ‘Pleasure teaches your brain that a behaviour is worth remembering and repeating’ (Clear 2018, p. 185) – this is the reason why consumption of toothpaste and chewing gum skyrocketed when flavours were added to them.

• ‘If an experience is not satisfying, we have little reason to repeat it… what is rewarded is repeated, what is punished is avoided… Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them’ (Clear 2018, p. 186).

• The first three laws focus on increasing the likelihood of a habit being undertaken this time, while the fourth law focusses on increasing the likelihood that it will be repeated next time.

• The type of satisfaction that is needed to reinforce a habit is immediate satisfaction.

• Humans long ago lived in an immediate-return environment where our actions granted immediate outcomes/rewards. However in modern society, we live in a delayed-return environment, where our actions will not benefit us immediately e.g. working for a paycheck at the end of the week, saving up for retirement.

• The world has changed significantly over the recent years, but the human brain has not developed to keep up with the new environment. We still place a high value on instant gratification despite our environment of delayed returns.

• The tendency for humans to value the present more than the future is referred to as time inconsistency: ‘a reward that is certain right now is worth more than one that is merely possible in the future’ (Clear 2018, p. 188).

• With bad habits, consequences are delayed but rewards are immediate – the immediate outcome makes us feel good but the ultimate outcome makes us feel bad. For example, smoking gives relief in the short-term, but increases the risk of cancer and breathing problems in the long-term.

• Good habits are the inverse of the this – the immediate outcome is unenjoyable but the ultimate outcome feels good.

• ‘People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills’ (Clear 2018, p. 190).

• ‘The best way to train yourself to delay gratification is to add a little bit of immediate pleasure to the habits that pay off in the long-run and a little bit of immediate pain to ones that don’t’ (Clear 2018, p. 190) i.e., reinforcement.

• One solution is to turn the situation on it’s head – for habits you want to avoid. For example, if you want to stop spending money on take-out food, instead of depriving yourself of the immediate positive emotions that when you overspend, name a savings account after something you want to save up towards such as a jacket or trip to Europe.

• It is important that the short-term rewards should reinforce your identity rather than conflict with it i.e., the rewards should not work against the habit you want to build. For example, buying a new jacket is counterproductive for someone who wants to save money, and going for ice cream is counterproductive for someone who wants to lose weight.

• Immediate reinforcement helps motivation in the short-term, and in the long-term you will eventually experience more intrinsic rewards from performing the habit, such as better mood and reduced stress. Eventually, the habit will become self-reinforcing.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learn more about the book, click here.

Interested in reading more? See my notes for Chapter 16.