A few nights ago I had to make an “emergency” run to Walmart for some milk, cookies, and ice cream. And some googly eyes – for a reindeer craft the next day in Melissa’s kindergarten classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
It was the first time I have ever made such a run to Walmart that I did not regret in some way. In fact, I came home in a good mood.<\/p>\n\n\n
And this good mood had swept over me suddenly in the ice cream aisle … where I found a crumpled twenty dollar bill on the floor. Ownerless.<\/p>\n\n\n
And that twenty more than covered the cost of my Walmart run.<\/p>\n\n\n
Which made my penny-pinching heart happy.<\/p>\n\n\n
I only relate this bit of good luck because a tiny follow-up event caught my attention and appealed to my interest in habit formation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Here’s the follow up: this morning I had to make yet another Walmart run. This time for motor oil.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
After grabbing the oil, I swung through the grocery section to get some cashews.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
On my way to the checkout, I had to pass the ice cream aisle, and as I did, my head pivoted – quite unconsciously – and my eyes quickly scanned the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
In that moment, I realized my brain was hoping to find another twenty there. (No such luck.)<\/p>\n\n\n
Here’s the connection to habit formation: We think starting a new habit is difficult – involving so much discipline and willpower. But I was reminded this morning that our brains are primed and ready to repeat any action that gets rewarded.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Even without conscious effort on our part.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
If you want to start a new habit, one key is to make sure you reward yourself immediately after taking the new action.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Your brain will notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few nights ago I had to make an “emergency” run to Walmart for some milk, cookies, and ice cream. And some googly eyes – for a reindeer craft the next day in Melissa’s kindergarten classroom.\u00a0 It was the first time I have ever made such a run to Walmart that I did not regret […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9914,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9913\/revisions\/9914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}