Gaining satisfaction from new Healthy Habits

We have already looked at the first three elements of creating a new habit: make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy. Now lets look at this last piece of how to make a habit stick – make it satisfying- and break it down. How do you do this?

Actually it is all part of making you feel successful. Success tells your brain that the habit paid off and that it was worth the effort. This is the reward part of habit building that keeps you coming back to this habit. The feeling that comes with a reward – the satisfaction, the enjoyment – closes the feedback loop and teaches your brain to remember this behavior for next time, knowing that the behavior will bring the warm and fuzzy reward feeling the next time you do it.

So how do you create this feeling of reward, this make it satisfying element? The brain likes immediate feedback when it is being trained to make habits stick. And immediate rewards are particularly important in the early stages of building a new habit. You need a short term reason to stay the course, something that keeps you excited while you await the long term reward. And it is the end stage of the behavior forming that habit that we need to link the reward to – for example, watching your favorite TV show after doing a challenging workout, or more to the point here, going to your favorite coffee shop after you have completed your morning journaling. You want a reward for a job well done.

Create an external reinforcer that aligns with the healthier, happier you that you are trying to create.

It would be nice if the satisfaction of just completing the task would be reward enough but in the real world good habits tend to feel worthwhile and satisfying only after they have provide you with something. External rewards are one of the best ways for staying motivated while waiting for our long term outcomes to come to fruition.

But be careful that you do not then focus on the external reward piece more than, or instead of, the thing that you are chasing. Do not lose sight of your ultimate goal and of a healthier and happier you. It is therefore important to not reward yourself with something that conflicts with this new you that you are building through these healthy habits. Eventually the intrinsic rewards will become motivation enough to keep going but until that time these external rewards are pretty important in getting new habits to stick.

What rewards will you use to get new habits to stick?

Be Well, Real Well,
Tracey