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THE POWER OF HABIT
COVADONGA O'SHEA
The Habit Loop
So, how do you create a habit? The habit loop goes like this. Cue, routine, reward. Cue routine, reward. If you repeat this habit loop, the behavior becomes natural. Cue, routine, reward. Cue, routine, reward. What is the cue? It is the trigger to do the behavior. The routine is the behavior itself. And finally, the reward is the positive affirmation that ensures the behavior is repeated. In the 1990s, scientists at MIT did a memory experiment on rats. The scientists discovered that animals with injured basal ganglia suddenly struggled with tasks such as running through mazes or opening food containers. It appeared that the rats’ memories were destroyed. The scientists then decided to do an experiment where they would observe the rats as they do basic routines. The scientists inserted tiny wires in the brains of the rats so they could monitor brain activity. These are sensors inserted into the skulls of rats that feed information into the scientists’ computers.
The rats are put in a T-shaped maze with chocolate at one end. The task, of course, for each rat is to find the chocolate. First, there was a partition that separated the rats from the rest of the maze. Then, there is the sound of a loud click, and the partition is removed. It is the trigger or cue for the rat to find the chocolate.The rat would begin to wander around, sniffing at corners and scratching walls. It smells the chocolate, but it does not know where it is. Sometimes, the rat turns right. Sometimes, it turns left. But eventually, the rat finds the chocolate. The sensor inside the rat’s head showed that as the rat wandered through the maze, the basal ganglia was at full power. Each time the rat scratched the wall or sniffed the air, the basal ganglia exploded with activity. The scientists repeated the experiment again and again.
They made the rats go through the same maze and same routine. Eventually, something changed. The rats stopped wandering and making the wrong turns. They stopped sniffing and scratching the walls. They went their way straight towards the chocolate. They already know where it is.In the monitor, the sensor also showed that the basal ganglia's activity becomes less and less. The brain activity decreased. The routine becomes automatic to the rat, and it does not have to think about it anymore.The cue is the click sound, the routine is the maze, and the reward is the chocolate. As the rat went through this habit loop, the basal ganglia stored the habit. At first, it is in full activity, but as the habit repeated, the basal ganglia decreased its effort.This proves that our brain stores habits to save energy for more important tasks.
The Habit of Success
The bad habit is still there. It is waiting for the right cue. It will repeat, and the person will do the same routine. So, the key is to replace it with a good habit. To do that, the cue and reward should still be the same, but the routine is different. For example, you have this bad habit of always browsing through social media. It is all you ever do when you get home from work. You use your phone until late at night.You can do this change in routine. First, the cue is arriving at home. Then, instead of lying in your couch and using your phone, you get into your running shoes and jog around the neighborhood. That is your new routine. Then, after an hour, you go back and make yourself a strawberry smoothie. That is your reward. If you repeat this cue, routine, and reward, you will make the new habit. Again, your cue is arriving home from work, your new routine is jogging, and your reward is the strawberry smoothie. You can apply the habit loop for any bad habit you want to change in your life.
Remember cue, routine, reward. To replace a bad habit, use the same cue and reward, but change the routine. Let us learn and be inspired by this next story. Both of Travis Leach's parents are heroin addicts. Each day, he comes home to find his parents in front of the TV. They are both high, and their eyes are half-open. When Travis was 9 years old, his mother was arrested for drug possession and prostitution. He was also 9 years old when for the first time, he saw his father have a heroin overdose. His father collapsed on the floor and started convulsing. His face turned blue. Travis's siblings already know what to do in this situation. His brother rolled their father's body to his side. His sister kept his mouth open so that their father would not choke on his tongue. Travis went to the neighbor to call 911.When Travis was 16, he dropped out of high school. He said that he was tired of being bullied. His classmates would call him a faggot, follow him on the streets, and throw things at him. He said that it was easier to quit and leave his hometown. Travis moved to Fresno, where he worked at Mc Donald's and Hollywood video. Sometimes, customers were rude. One shouted at him, "I wanted ranch dressing, you moron!" and Travis would lose control.
"Get out of my drive-through!" Travis shouted back at the woman. He threw the chicken nuggets at the customer’s car. Sometimes, Travis would get so upset that he cries in the middle of a shift. He was often late or absent.At home, he talks to himself in the mirror. He orders himself to be better, to suck it up, and be normal. But Travis could not get along well with people. Sometimes, the line at his cash register would get too long, and the manager would shout at him. Travis's hands would start shaking, and he begins to catch his breath.Until one day, a regular customer at Hollywood video spoke to him and suggested that he work at Starbucks. The customer is an assistant manager in a new branch at Fort Washington. He invited Travis to apply. One month later, Travis became the morning shift barista.Six years passed, and Travis is 25 years old. Now, he is a manager of two Starbucks branches. He oversees 40 employees, and he is responsible for a revenue of $2 million per year. His salary is $44,000.
Travis is never late or absent. He is now the master of his emotions. He never gets upset on the job. Once, an employee was screamed at by a customer. Travis took the employee aside and told her, “Your apron is a shield. You can be as strong as you want to be.”What caused this great change in Travis’s life? He attended the Starbucks training courses. He joined the lectures on his very first day as a barista. The program is structured in such a way that employees can earn college credits when they complete the modules.Starbucks’s training program changed Travis’ life. Starbucks has taught him how to focus, how to live, how to master his emotions. He said, “Starbucks is the most important thing that happened to me. I owe everything to this company.”
Starbucks saw that to provide good service, all the employees must have willpower and self-discipline. That's why the company spends millions of dollars to train employees and create new good habits in their lives. Starbucks has manuals and workbooks that have instructions on how an employee should handle a difficult situation or a difficult customer. For example, if a customer is angry because he got the wrong drink, the right response is to use the LATTE method. That is, Listen to the customer, Acknowledge the complaint, Take Action by giving the right drink, Thank the customer, and Explain why the problem occurred. Training the employees and teaching them about willpower, self-discipline, and good habits is part of how Starbucks reached this tremendous success. Good habits of employees lead to good customer service. It’s one of the reasons why Starbucks is more than just coffee.