Winning
When you win, at first whether by fluke or by hard work and training. It is wonderful. You feel great and amazed by your own power. Winning makes us feel great. It is a feeling that is easy to fall in love with and easy to become addicted to. On winning it becomes easier and easier to build winners habits.
- Hard work, smart work
- willingness to sacrifice other things to win some more
- build new friendships of winners
- think about your daily actions and how they will affect your performance
- willing to do the right thing
These habits will become deeply ingrained in the individual. And the better they get the deeper those habits become. As winning will reinforce the habit loop. Cue, routine , Reward. Now for our sake winning is the reward, or the feeling one gets when experiencing a win. The W.
That is what you would think. However for some, particularly those playing team sports, it might not be all about the big W. The reward can sometime be the camaraderie, the repoire built with the others ion his team, the coaches and even the opponents. Someone can be willing to train harder in order to be on that team even if they are a losing team. They can be willing to sacrifice time with other friends, and time away from other enjoyable activities.
But this habit will not be as strong. When you through winning in the mix. Everything becomes easier. You walk around with a big smile and feel as though you deserve more. Those habits become self reinforcing.
The discipline required to become a winner. Becomes a life discipline habit. One that will grow with you like a tree that was properly taken care of from when it was a seedling. Coming to full bloom and becoming larger and stronger everyday.
All actions have this feedback loop withing them. They all have a competing opposite and equal force. When it is time to train, a lot of us will feel the pull to skip today, if we don’t feel the winning feedback loo being activated. We will fall back into old habits, unless for a period we always continue to achieve. And this feedback loop can grow.
It must at least feel like it is worth it.
The harder work. The extra training, and missing social outings. All of this must be worth it. In order to be worth it, it must feel like it is worth it. There has to be a reward for the actions that are being taken. Even if the reward is future based. It must be “worth IT”. At least at some point the reward must come. The reward can come from knowing that you are working toward the bigger reward. The brain can build these associations where one can build on the result of the the last time you were successful.
Train, diet all week, miss a birthday party(can’t stay out late),see small progress. With this in mind it kind of looks like we only have a two step habit loop. But there is still three.
The Cue to continue the routine is also the reward. You seeing the progress will cue you for the next week of routine.
CUE > ROUTINE
ROUTINE > REWARD
REWARD = CUE
The danger in this scenario.
No progress is made. Lets say for a week. You then fee as thou the CUE is not as strong. It is also the reward. And the cue requires the routine to to fulfill itself. Without the reward there is no routine, as the cue is lost. So having this abbreviated habit loop, is what can turn winners into losers. The ones who are only willing to work for the W. The ones whose CUE is the REWARD. The habit is not as strong because it is self defeating as well as self fulfilling.
This is why it is so hard fo so many people to start an exercise program and stick with it. The reward is not great enough for the routine to stick. Or change their diet.
The reward is not great enough for the routine to stick. Especially when it is competing with other existing habits. Eating poorly feels good right now. So you get the reward without much work. You get the cue( a little craving) , the routine, snack attack.The Reward. Barain chemicals say good job.
This works for drinkers, chronic weed smokers, chronic masturbaters. All addicts.The loop is stronger, the routine requires little effort, and the cue can show up all by itself. seeing a drink, the smell of someone’s smoke, the smell of a bakery.
The cue does not need the routine to be there.
Winners, peak performers seem to have this ability to build this loop on their own. They know the reward will come with the work. The work then becomes the reward. The cue for them becomes the feeling that they are not doing enough. The feeling thatthey will not be the best, that they will let others down. They want to win, but more importantly the want to do what it takes to win.
Most important word in the last paragraph.
WANT!
The peak performers want to be there. It is not work for them. It is a life.It is them being them. From years of built in habit loop reinforced over and over again.
How to make your own Habit loop to ensure your success?
You first need to identify your CUE. The cue to your own habit that you want changed. It could be anything from a mall feeling to seeing a notification on your cellphone. Record when you feel the need to complete the habit routine. Give yourself a week or two. Even noticing the cue can sometimes be enough to change the routine. Observing can change the outcome!
Next when the cue shows up, you need to replace it with a routine that you want to have. Deep breathes, quick walk, reading instead of going out with buddies.
Now for the reward. This is the hard part. If you don’t have a reward that is separate from the CUE. The LOOP will become self defeating. It will be way to easy to fall into old habits.
Pick a reward and let me know below.