Behaviors followed by satisfying consequences are likely to be repeated, and those followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated.

A {{c1::habit}} is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The process begins with trial and error. Given a new situation, you will not know what to do, so you try things out to see what works. You make conscious decisions about how to act. Occasionally, you stumble across a solution. Exploring, exploring, exploring leads to stumbling a reward and your brain will catalogue the events that preceded the reward. With practice, the useless movements fade away, and the useful actions get reinforced (that is a habit forming). When a problem is faced repeatedly, the brain automates the process of solving it. Habits are a series of automatic solutions to regular problems. They are reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment. As habits are created, the level of activity in the brain decreases. More information can be tuned out because you know what is relevant to focus on. These cognitive scripts can be followed automatically when the situation is appropriate. A habit is a memory of the steps you previously followed to solve a problem in the past. Given the right conditions, you draw on the memory and apply the solution. The conscious mind is the bottleneck of the brain. When possible, the conscious mind can pawn tasks off to the nonconscious mind to do automatically. Habits reduce cognitive load and free mental capacity to allocate attention to other tasks.

Habits do not restrict freedom, they create it (consider the effects good financial, health, and learning habits). Mental space is created for free thinking and creativity by getting the basics of life handled automatically by habits.

The backbone of every {{c1::habit}} is four steps: {{c2::cue}}, {{c3::craving}}, {{c4::response}}, and {{c5::reward}}.

Cue, craving, response, and reward are the four steps that can be translated into laws into building habits. This is the backbone of every habit.

The cue triggers the brain to initiate a behavior. It is some information that predicts a reward. It is the first indication that we are close to a reward and lead to a craving. Craving is the reason to act. What you crave is the change in state delivered by the habit. Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The response is the performance of the habit. Whether a response occurs depends on motivation, friction, and ability. The response delivers a reward, the end goal of every habit. Rewards serve two purposes: they satisfy us, and they teach us. The first purpose is to satisfy your craving. Rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Rewards close the feedback loop. If the reward fails to satisfy, there is no reason to do it again in the future. This can be called the habit loop. Cure, craving, response, reward allows you to create habits.

This is an endless feedback loop that happens constantly. It can be split into two phases: the problem phase and the solution phase. The solution phase is the response and reward. All behavior is driven by the desire to solve a problem, which might be just that you notice something good and want to achieve it.

We need to put the four steps into a practical framework: the four laws of behavior change.

Each law can be thought of as a lever. When the levers are in the right positions, creating new habits is effortless.

To make a good habit: Make the cue obvious. Make the craving attractive. Make the response easy. Make the reward satisfying.

Invert the laws to break a habit. Make the cue invisible. Make the craving unattractive. Make the response difficult. Make the reward unsatisfying.