Rather, to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.
Interpretation
To change a habit, maintain the triggers and rewards while introducing a new behavior.
This quote emphasizes that transforming a habit is not about eliminating previous triggers or rewards but about substituting the behavior that follows. By understanding the structure of habits—cue, routine, and reward—you can effectively reshape your actions and achieve better outcomes in your life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development, one could use this quote to illustrate how to create lasting change.
There is a calculus, it turns out, for mastering our subconscious urges. For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.
A huge amount of success in life comes from learning as a child how to make good habits. It's good to help kids understand that when they do certain things habitually, they're reinforcing patterns.
When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit -- unless you find new routines -- the pattern will unfold automatically.
Cravings are what drive habits. And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier.
Every habit is made of three parts... a cue, a routine and a habit. Most people focus on the routine and behavior, but these cues and rewards are really the way you make something into a habit.
When marketers influence habits, they influence peoples' self-identity. And so when a group or company does something that doesn't correspond to our core values, it feels like a betrayal.
Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.
What happened to the world was gradual. I've forgotten what it actually was, but I have faint, fetal memories of what it was like. A smoldering dread that never really caught fire till there wasn't much left to burn. Each sequential step surprised us. Then one day we woke up, and everything was gone.
We've been doing work outside of the anthem since the beginning. Before the anthem even started, players were involved in these types of social justice issues. The anthem protests or demonstrations just brought eyes and attention to it.
The world "out there" won't change until the world "in here" does.
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
It's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.
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