Ever find yourself with a bad habit like eating a cookie every day at lunch? Charles Duhigg did. And he set out on a research journey to break that habit in the book: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Despite the 8 pounds he had gained, Duhigg found himself in the cafeteria every afternoon eating another cookie. He tried reminder notes, but promptly ignored them. He discovered that a habit is actually a three-step loop:
Cue —> Habit routine —> Reward
I’m only a month into this “new lifestyle” of being awesome. But here’s what I’ve realized: I’m not as awesome as I’d hoped. I started by hacking my financial life. I took some steps to create an awesome plan to retire awesomely early. When you’re trying to streamline something to be the best it can be, you realize there are shortfalls. I realized I had places I could improve in financially, so to help me, I started this blog. It hasn’t been up long and it doesn’t have a lot of traffic, but it’s my piece to help myself and people like me be better. We can be smarter. We can make better choices.
In optimizing my financial life, I realized I’ve got more optimizing to do.
I set up the blog to help me make better financial choices, so I became hyper-aware of financial discussions happening all around me. It turns out people are always talking about using credit cards like checkbooks, struggling to pay off large student loans, and buying all the things! If you are involved in the online personal finance community, it makes you just want to shout “YOU KNOW BETTER! DON’T BE STUPID!” Because, of course, I’m smarter than them. But I’m not.
We all know what we should be doing, but no one can make us do it. If it’s not happening, it’s your fault!
This study is a (very) oldie, but an important goodie. And you’ve probably heard about it. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, Walter Mischel of Stanford University did a series of experiments with preschool children. The children were given a marshmallow (or a pretzel or a cookie). If they waited to eat the marshmallow for an unspecified amount of time (until the experimenter returned), the child would be given two marshmallows. At any point, the child could ring the bell on the table to have the experimenter return, but then they would only get the one marshmallow.
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