Cravings are the brain’s way of signifying that something is missing inside. Your habits are the time-tested strategies used to create shifts in your physical or emotional state to fill the void. There are many ways to address satisfying either of these states, but you will use the one that satisfies them in the most pleasurable way. To ensure you are motivated to act in a positive way, you must make the right behavior a more attractive option for satisfying your craving. But first, you must understand where cravings come from and why they are so powerful.
Many of your current cravings are grounded in your ancestry. Humans have evolved significantly since the time of hunters and gatherers. Science and technology have increased your ability to live more efficiently and find a wealth of resources to address your needs. However, what hasn't changed are the underlying motivations that influence behaviors. Every behavior stems from some type of underlying motive. Your habits are contemporary solutions to address ancient motivations, which include the following:
The Motivation for Overeating
Our ancestors lived in a time where food was not plentiful, and calorie- and nutrient-rich food sources were scarce. The practical strategy was to find whatever food they could forage and eat as much as possible to survive.
In modern times, food is abundant in many regions of the world. Foods that are high in calories are no longer scarce. We no longer have to gorge ourselves to survive, and we have the added benefit of knowing that high-calorie foods are not good for us.
Still, because of this ingrained motivation, we crave unhealthy foods and consume them in mass quantities.
Businesses monopolize on these ancient motivations to sell more products or make more money. For example, the food industry capitalizes on your motivation to survive by making food more attractive and habit forming.
Other examples include how social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, capitalize on your inherent need for community and recognition, and dating apps capitalize on your need for companionship.
You are always looking for ways to satiate these inherent motivations, and the more attractive and stimulating the experience is, the more you will crave it.
All habits create a dopamine spike in the brain. Dopamine is a brain chemical produced when you anticipate pleasure and creates the sensation of desire. Dopamine is also released when you experience pleasure. These two experiences can be considered as wanting versus liking.
The anticipation of pleasure—the process of wanting—is triggered when the brain notices a cue and perceives a reward. At this moment, dopamine spikes and motivates you to act. A similar thing happens when you receive a reward. When something happens that is pleasurable—the act of liking—dopamine spikes to indicate your satisfaction. The only difference is that the system involved in both wanting and liking is wired to be ten times stronger for wanting.
In relation to the stages of habit formation, your body releases dopamine in the following way:
(Shortform example: The habit formation stages can be seen clearly in drug addiction. The phrase “chasing the dragon” characterizes the difference between wanting and liking. The first time the drug is used and elicits a pleasing sensation, a connection is formed between the drug and pleasure. Each time you are cued to want the same type of pleasure, you will crave the drug. Dopamine spikes in anticipation of the same high as before, but because anticipation now overrides actual pleasure, the result will be less than before. Continuing to chase this high is the essence of habit formation.)
Your underlying motivation to belong affects your behaviors. Group mentality is strong in society. You want to feel connected to others and a part of something larger than yourself. Therefore, what you see others do around you shapes what you do. Your earliest habits are formed by imitating how parents, friends, and teachers behave. When certain behaviors help you fit in and belong, they are more attractive.
There are three groups of people that greatly influence your choices in behavior.
You often pick up habits from those you are close to without realizing it. Like the physical environment, your social environments are riddled with various cues. The manner in which your loved ones respond to a cue acts as a sort of subconscious peer pressure. You imitate their behavior so you will be seen as one of them. This type of imitation is only negative when you’re surrounded by bad influences.
Surrounding yourself with positive influences helps surround you with good behaviors. When you see others behaving in a way that is in line with the habits you want to create, forming those habits becomes easier. To use your social environment to its full potential, seek out specific social groups where your desired behaviors are the norm and with which you already share something in common.
The shared identity promotes your personal identity, and the sense of belonging fuels your motivation to maintain good habits and provides allies for the journey.
Group mentality is a powerful influencer because it is easier to go along with bad or incorrect behaviors than be good or right on your own. When you don’t know how to respond in certain situations, you scan the people around you to see what everyone else is doing.
Your natural instinct is to get along with others, but when the actions of the group cause you to disregard your own feelings or behaviors that fit your desired identity, this influence becomes negative. Following a different path than the group is unattractive, but with effort, you can learn to stick to your guns and seek out groups who support your identity.
Your underlying motivation to gain status and admiration for who you are causes you to imitate the behaviors of successful people. You imitate those you envy and become motivated to act in a way that generates the praise and respect you perceive them to have. You believe doing what powerful people do will garner the same results in your life. You also avoid behaviors that may reduce your status in society.
The reward you seek is acknowledgement for who you are and what you do, and you will continue to bounce between behaviors until you find the right one that works. Find the right role models with positive attributes and actions to help motivate you to form good habits.
There are many different ways to address the underlying motivations of behavior, and your current methods may not be the best ones. The habits you have now are merely the behaviors the brain latched onto because of dopamine stimulation when rewards were experienced. To make behaviors more attractive and create new cravings, you can manipulate your thoughts and actions.
The more attractive and stimulating an experience, the more you will crave it. Unfortunately, many healthy new habits (like exercising or eating more vegetables) don’t trigger strong cravings. The solution to this is to bundle the new habit with something you already want. This is called temptation bundling.
Temptation bundling creates a supernormal stimuli—a heightened version of reality that elicits stronger-than-normal responses.
Temptation bundling can also be used with habit stacking. The formula is as follows: “After X [current habit], I will do Y [new habit]. After I do Y, I get to do Z [craved habit].”
If the habit you stacked previously is something you’re passionate about, you can bundle another needed habit in between the two previous habits.
Through temptation bundling, you create a heightened version of your desired habit to elicit a stronger desire. Over time, you will look forward to performing the needed habit because it means you get to do the desired activity next.
When you experience positive feelings about something or someone, that thing or person becomes more attractive. Since cravings are nothing more than a signal to change part of your physical or emotional state, you can switch the signal by connecting behaviors to positive feelings. If behaviors create positive feelings, they become more attractive.
1. A shift in paradigm is one way to generate more positive feelings. Think about your “to-do” list. The items on it likely feel like burdens, or things you have to do. Change the title of the list to “get-to-do” list, and the burden of performing these acts now feels like an opportunity and a privilege.
2. Redefining habits to highlight their advantages, rather than disadvantages, also creates more positive feelings.
3. Motivational rituals can also become cues to trigger positive feelings.
Creating more positive feelings for your habits will not happen overnight. Determine which strategy will work best and stick to it. Small changes require time to fully engage with the mind and become automatic cravings for the appropriate actions.