Solution: only get a pedicure while processing overdue work emails. Maybe you want to get a pedicure, but you need to clean out your email inbox. Using temptation bundling, you could only read the tabloids and watch reality shows at the gym. Perhaps you want to hear about the latest celebrity gossip, but you need to get in shape. The first, Temptation Bundling pairs an action you want to do with one you need to do: (On Twitter, Clear himself recommended I re-visit the chapter on Identity.) I revisited the book’s chapters on Craving and only found two approaches. So what should you do?īreaking a bad habit is much harder than adding a good one and Atomic Habits is quite sparse on ways to make a bad habit less attractive. What you really want is to feel different. When you binge-eat or light up or browse social media, what you really want is not a potato chip or a cigarette or a bunch of likes. Adds Clear:Įven the tiniest action is tinged with the motivation to feel differently than you do in the moment. We turn to our bad habits, because we want to feel differently. This gap between your current state and your desired state provides a reason to act. When the temperature falls, there is a gap between what your body is currently sensing and what it wants to be sensing. It is the desire to change your internal state. Clear lays it out quite viscerally:Ī craving is the sense that something is missing. Which makes it easy – deliciously tempting – to turn to the ‘Gram or the bottle. I mean, how else could you win social acceptance and approval? What’s missing in your life?Ī craving implies that there’s something missing in your life. What do you think is the underlying desire behind posting a thirst trap on Instagram? And you’ll see that once you pass “reducing uncertainty” the desires are clearly tied to how others see us. I’ve taken the liberty to recategorize these desires a la Maslow’s Hierarchy. So the next question becomes, “What’s behind the craving?” What’s your underlying motive?Ĭlear argues that our reptilian brains are actually quite simple, they’re “modern-day solutions to ancient desires.” These desires? Removing limes from the house doesn’t address the craving. It doesn’t get to the heart of the desire. join a running group with a good friend in order to lose weight.)Īnd if you want to remove a bad habit, Make it Unattractive.īut having seen countless high-performers struggle to ditch bad habits (ranging from weed, Instagram, video games, pornography, and smoking), this advice doesn’t get to the heart of the challenge. Here, if you want to add a good habit, you should Make it Attractive. Step 2, The Craving, is a bit more nefarious.
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