Craig Sheffield's Key Ideas from Stick with It
by Sean D. Young

Automatic behaviors are best changed by making things Easy and Engrained along with using Neurohacks and Captivating rewards.

Burning behaviors are similar to automatic ones but we can also use Stepladders, Community, and Immediacy.

Common behaviors are best changed with the help of Communities in conjunction with the other forces while Neurohacks are the least effective.

In general, the more conscious we are of our behaviors, the easier they are to change.

Sometimes we fail at achieving our goals because they are out of our control or unrealistic. Set steps to get to goals, to get to dreams.

Is it a Dream or a Goal?

Dreams typically take more than three months and you haven't previously accomplished it before.

Goals typically take one to three months and are easier to quantify. *Goals can take longer but only if you have experience.

Make your steps tiny and build on small victories. You should be able to accomplish at least one step each week.

Social support and healthy competition are powerful. Find a community of people doing what you want to do or begin your own.

The best communities have a "social magnet" that drive them and draw the members closer. Without this, communities often fail.

The 6 ingredients for a successful community are:

1. The need to Trust - share experiences
2. The need to Fit In - clear social norms
3. The need for Self Worth - feeling good about ourselves
4. The need for a Social Magnet - an active, nurturing group
5. The need to be Rewarded
6. The need to feel Empowered - in control of ourselves

If you are motivated you will build lasting changes but if your pleasure is more important than your goal, you won't.

Use The Big Three to make steps and goals more important than your pleasure.

1. Money
2. Social connections
3. Health

Ask yourself if it is important to change your behavior for better health, relationships, or more money and use the answer to leverage the other forces to continue to make positive changes in your life.

We all enjoy doing things that are easy to do. Sometimes this is a problem and other times it's a boon.

Don't underestimate small changes in the environment that can lead to big changes in behavior. Want to eat healthier? Remove unhealthy food from your home.

We can also avoid "choice paralysis" by limiting our available choices and avoid indecisiveness by creating a road map with a realistic action plan to make change a no brainer.

Change begins with action. Change your behavior and the mind will follow, including our feelings.

• Body movements such as posture and simply nodding our head when listening to something can influence how we think and feel.
• Taking note of physiology and trying to make it positive when beginning a change can have lasting effects.
• Keep in mind that our emotions and physiology are interconnected. If we couldn't frown, we would generally feel happier.
• Try changing speech to link our identity to have greater weight. Try telling yourself, "Don't be a cheater" instead of, "Don't cheat".

Pin point what is important and create rewards to help motivate yourself.

Use the "The Big Three" from Important but also think of these 5 ideas:

• Make it fun!
• Avoid fear and punishments.
• Don't reward things you already enjoy because it may backfire.
• Appeal to psychology and emotions, NOT logic alone.
• Make the activity itself rewarding

Quick fixes and Trick fixes

Quick fixes use Stepladders and Easy to provide fast, positive reinforcement to help maintain motivation.

Trick fixes use intermittent rewards to wean ourselves off of rewards once we get comfortable with our new habit.

We are creatures of habit and just as Easy helps us change, repetition helps engrain behaviors. But be careful because this works for good and bad habits.

• Repeating a behavior at the same time and place every day is a powerful technique the military employs to train soldiers.
• Try creating an alarm to help begin your new routine.

Magnetic behaviors are linked behaviors that make it easier to do a hard task. Linking putting on running shoes (easy) with going for a run (hard) is one example.