Would you touch a hot stove? Not willingly. The moment your fingers got close, your mind would be screaming hysterically, “STOP! DON’T DO IT! IT’S GONNA HURT!”
Your mind reacts that way because at some point in your life, you probably touched something that was a little too hot for your tastes. Being geared towards self-preservation, your mind decided to associate the idea of “hot”, with the feeling of “pain” that it delivered. That pain served as “aversive conditioning” to teach you that you shouldn’t touch hot things without adequate protection.
Around 80 years ago, scientists started experimenting with using aversive conditioning to break habits, addictions, and compulsive behavior. One such study focused on nail biting.
Habitual nail biters quit habit using “aversion”
A study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Vargas, Adesso, 1976) compared the effectiveness of three alternative approaches on treating chronic nail biting: electric jolt, negative practice, and bitter substance.
A number of volunteers who had been biting their nails for an average of 12 years, were randomly and evenly distributed into 4 groups.
The first group received “electric jolt conditioning”. During the sessions, these participants were to bite their nails on command, upon which they would receive an unpleasant jolt from a device connected to their fingers using electrodes.
The second group received “negative practice”. Negative practice involves repeatedly practicing the wrong behavior (in this case nail biting) with the full knowledge of it being wrong. This is done with the premise that “repetition of a wrong response knowingly, may increase the probability of occurrence of the right response”(Peak, 1941).
The third group received “bitter substance conditioning”, which involved applying a bitter-tasting substance to their nails and then biting them.
The 4th group was given no treatment whatsoever. In scientific research, this is called a “control group”. It helps researchers understand whether the changes happening in the test groups are due to the experiment, or to external factors.
The members of every group had their nails measured before treatment and at the end of the treatment. Additionally, half of the participants in each group were asked to regularly measure their own nail growth.
Participants in “bitter taste” and “electric jolt” groups register much higher nail growth at the end of the treatment
After six sessions of treatment, participants in the groups receiving electric jolts and bitter taste treatment experienced a much greater nail growth than those within the “control” group. The negative practice group also achieved good results.
Interestingly, those participants who were regularly monitoring their own nail growth were even more successful than those who weren’t.
Awareness + Aversion = Habit Breaking Bomb
The study above shows that when an aversive stimulus (such as an electric jolts or bitter taste) is linked in some way to a behavior, the mind starts to reprogram itself to stop that behavior. This is similar to the example of the hot stove mentioned earlier in the article.
More importantly, awareness of the behavior considerably enhances the effectiveness of this approach.
Strictly speaking, awareness rarely is enough. Most of us are very aware of our bad habits, but it doesn’t help us quit.
That’s why we need both awareness and an “aversive stimulus” to succeed.
Bibliography
Coleman, James C., and Jean Elizabeth Mccalley. “Nail-Biting among College Students.” The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 43.4 (1948): 517–525. Web.
Vargas, John M., and Vincent J. Adesso. “A Comparison of Aversion Therapies for Nailbiting Behavior.” Behavior Therapy 7.3 (1976): 322–329. Web.
A common misconception on creativity is that it’s a passive process; those who are creative are naturally so, and a stall in creativity can’t be cured by anything except waiting for inspiration to arrive.
However, a recent Stanford University study tested Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote, “All great thoughts are conceived by walking”, using four experiments and two different tests on creative thinking.
The original experiment proved that walking on a treadmill inside while facing a blank wall improved creativity compared to sitting. Further experiments showed a lingering increase in creative thinking after the walk, described by the study as a “residual creative boost”.
Four groups were involved in the last experiment, where the subjects:
1. sat outside
2. walked outside
3. walked on a treadmill outside
4. were rolled around in a wheelchair outside.
The results showed that walking outside led to the biggest increase in creativity. The researchers attribute the improvement to a combination of muscle movements and unrestricted freedom to change direction and pace.
So if you’ve been at your desk for hours and your work has plateaued, consider a break to walk outside. Not only will you be better equipped to think while you’re walking, but you’ll also experience a “residual creative boost” back at your desk.
For about 10 years I’ve been a terrible sleeper. I toss and turn all night, I wake up when cars drive by outside (and when squirrels breathe too loudly), I can’t sleep in anything but pitch black.
And so I never feel well rested — instead it’s a struggle to focus and get through the day.
Then a couple of weeks ago my friend Eric shared a few tips on how I might improve by sleep habits, and it’s made a world of difference.
I’m actually in bed for less hours and still have higher energy & cognition throughout the day. Plus there have been some unexpected benefits: my skin looks better, my senses of taste and smell are higher, and I feel physically stronger.
Conclusion #1: Eric is a magic-sleep-wizard.
Conclusion #2: Eric is an expert on sleep habits who has spent years researching and perfecting better sleep techniques for himself and his students.
For today’s article, I’ve asked Eric to share a strategy that you can use today to get better sleep.
Side Note: Getting good sleep is one of the highest priorities for Pavlok fans, so we are building a “wake up alarm clock” that will shock you when you press the snooze button. You may be able to sleep through dozens of alarms, but I don’t know anyone that can sleep through electric shock.
Here’s Eric…
From snooze button addict to the world’s most productive morning person. How to jolt out of bed — even if you hate mornings.
The secret to amazing sex, 6-pack abs, and earning more money has been hiding right underneath your nose.
And when people find out how devastatingly simple this secret really is, they often shake their heads in disbelief, mumble “can’t be real,” and think I’m either crazy or not telling the truth.
It’s my own fault they don’t believe me…
…Because the changes I made have been so dramatic.
Here’s a glimpse at just some of my results, since making ONE radical shift in my life:
I never miss a workout. (I’m up at 5 am every day — full of energy — heading to Crossfit. Whereas I used to crawl out of bed just to make it to work on time.)
I’m hyper-productive at work. (I’ve been able to earn multiple promotions and a $40k raise. Whereas I used to do the bare minimum to get by)
I’ve launched a business on the side. (I even built a product, which generated thousands of dollars of revenue in its first launch. Whereas I used to say “I don’t have time!”)
How did I do it? What’s my secret?
Learn how to FINALLY become a morning person
I went from a snooze button addict to the world’s most productive morning person.
However, my journey has been anything but a straight line.
For years, I was sleep-deprived and desperately wanted to live a different life.
I wanted to become a morning person. I’d read all these articles about how getting up early was critical for success, for staying in shape, and for finding more time in the day.
But any time I TRIED to get up early, I always failed.
After hitting the snooze button several times, maybe — just maybe — I’d crawl out of bed.
Does this look familiar?
And, when I finally did wake up, I needed two cups of coffee before I felt alive.
Worse yet, I had no energy for the rest of the day (but somehow got a burst late at night).
I’d toss and turn and watch TV until I passed out.
The cycle would repeat itself the next day. It was like Groundhog Day — only in real life.
Sleep was my invisible problem for years.
No one knew I struggled with it every night. Yet everyone saw the devastating effects of my tired self dragging through the day.
Think I’m exaggerating?
It’s not just me…
Anyone who’s ever felt the effects of not getting enough rest knows this is true.
Turns out, things can get really bad (even worse than I ever thought possible) if we don’t address this problem.
Let me show you what I mean.
The devastating effects of sleep deprivation
The immediate issues of not sleeping enough are pretty obvious.
We trudge through the day feeling cloudy-headed, sluggish, and dying for a nap. That 2 PM feeling happened every. single. day.
We’re a little moodier than usual. Maybe we make a few careless mistakes. Not a huge deal though, right?
But slowly, deeper issues sneak up on us with time.
Permanent changes start to take hold like:
Weight gain. According to Harvard Medical School, a lack of sleep is linked to severe weight gain and even obesity. When we don’t sleep enough, our bodies create MORE harmful stress hormones and LESS hormones that tell us when we should stop eating. That hormonal cocktail makes us the perfect candidates to reach for donuts first thing at work and binge on burritos for dinner. End result? We uncontrollably pack on the pounds and don’t know how to stop.
No sex drive. Sleep specialists say that men and women who don’t sleep well report lower libidos and less interest in sex. And it makes a lot of sense. If your energy is low and you’re feeling sleepy and stressed, sex is probably the last thing on your mind. You just want a nap. No sleep = no more sex = that’s NOT how anyone wants to live life.
Brain damage. When we’re tired, it’s pretty easy to see that we’re forgetful and unfocused. But a continued lack of sleep is not just a one time problem. Based on some recent research, sleep deprivation is linked to permanent cognitive issues. That means the less we sleep, the more we destroy our memory and brian. Didn’t catch that? If you’re feeling tired, you may have to reread that to fully understand…I’m only kidding… Well, only kind of though.
Cancer. A growing body of research suggests that poor sleep can increase our risk of getting certain cancers. In fact in 2010, a study found that among a group of 1,240 people that were screened for colorectal cancer, the 338 who were diagnosed with the cancer were more likely to be sleep deprived. That means every hour we miss of shut-eye could cost us even more hours later on in life.
Even death. Okay maybe there’s nothing linking a lack of sleep to death today, but when we don’t sleep, we’re more prone to accidents. Not getting enough rest has played a huge role in the disasters of recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, and many others. Each of which not only took a huge toll on the environment but also took human lives.
As you can see, the problems with not getting enough sleep are pretty severe. The human body/brain just isn’t set up to NOT sleep. That’s why we see all these downstream effects.
But rather than just introducing the problems of not getting enough sleep and leaving you wondering how to become a morning person who jolts out of bed, I’m going to show you a method I’ve perfected and tested through the years.
It has worked for me and dozens of my students so I know this system can help you make lasting changes to your own sleep patterns.
What to focus on — and what to ignore — to wake up early
First, let me start by saying this is NOT about using some uberman sleep routine or a guide that tells you sipping on tons of herbal teas will get you more rest.
If you’re looking for a “magic bullet” or a one-time fix, this material won’t help you.
But, if you’re looking for a way to change your behavior and lifestyle — gradually, but permanently, over time — then this is the solution you’ve been waiting for all this time.
We’re moving beyond the basic sleep tactics to get you REAL results. Results you can sustain for life that will have you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up early every day.
This is very different than the finger-waving nagging you see from people who tell you ALL the things you CAN’T do, if you want more sleep.
Don’t view electronics/blue and white screens before bed
Don’t watch tons of tv or check work emails for 1 hour before sleep
Don’t eat heavy (carb intensive) meals right before falling asleep
Don’t have afternoon caffeine
Don’t exercise right before bed
Don’t get me wrong, the basics will get you a long way towards a good night’s rest, but I take a very different approach.
I built a system that’s not about “trying harder”. Forget that. The endless list of tactics and overloaded minutia gets you nowhere.
It’s time to work smarter, not harder, so you can get more sleep and jolt out of bed.
Because ultimately it’s not about sleep, but the lifestyle that getting proper sleep allows you to have: more time for the the things that are really important to you, like building your side business, hitting your workout routine, and spending quality time with the people you love.
To work smarter, not harder, with sleep and create a permanent habit, it’s best to reverse engineer our sleep.
In doing this, we can create a custom plan that gets us what we really want — so we get the most out of every night’s rest.
And you can get started with a simple, but profound routine.
3-step system to become an early riser
STEP 1: Decide When To Get Up
This is very straight forward, but often people skip this step and make the decision to wake up at a random time every day.
So rather than saying “6 am sounds good, I’ll get up then!”, you should know exactly when you need to get up.
If that’s 5 AM so be it. f it’s 7:30 AM, that’s okay too. Your morning is your own — so GO OWN it by knowing when you need to be awake.
STEP 2: Set Your Evening Alarm
You’re probably using your alarm clock to wake you up in the morning, but most people never consider setting an alarm at night to go to bed.
This gentle reminder at night is the best way to get into bed on time.
And setting up your evening alarm is easy — just work backwards from the time you wake up by the number of hours you want to rest.
For example, if you want to have seven hours of sleep (that’s the recommended minimum) and need to be awake by 6 AM, then you’d need to fall asleep by 11 PM the night before.
To be asleep by 11 PM, you’ll need to set your evening alarm to 10 PM to be in bed an hour before sleep.
Now that you’re finally ready for your morning to start and you know how to get ready for bed, you only have one final step….
STEP 3: Get Up!
The last piece to becoming a morning person is pretty obvious, but — actually getting out of bed — is the hardest part.
It’s easy to hear that alarm, think “Oh, 5 more min…”, hit snooze and before we know it we’re running around frazzled and panicked, trying not to be late.
One way to overcome this is to put your phone (or alarm clock) on the other side of the room. That way when the alarm goes off first thing, you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
And by the time you get out of bed and walk ALL the way across the room, you’ll naturally think “Oh well, might as well get up now.”
Over time, as you make this shift, it will get easier to wake up and stay awake. (Now I wake up before my alarm even goes off — I technically don’t need it, but still set it, just in case).
That’s how you create the permanent habit of getting up early and unlock the secrets of finding hidden time in your day. Pretty simple, huh? Well, don’t just read it, go get started on your plan!
Set Off Your Keystone Habit, Today
You can’t wake up earlier, if you can’t get to bed on time. I want to help you with that.
If you find yourself tossing and turning for hours on end, you can download my FREE e-book How to Fall Asleep in Minutes.
This e-book will help you:
click here to download Eric’s ebook “how to fall asleep in minutes”
Stop worrying about the endless list of thoughts racing through your head so you can fall asleep quickly.
Avoid the snooze button in the morning and wake up at 6 AM to get hours of work done while your competition is still asleep.
Have consistently high energy while others struggle with the afternoon slump.
Sleep is a force multiplier for everything in your life, and will effectively double the results for all of your work and health goals.
The mind has a very simple process for deciding whether it wants to repeat an experience or avoid it in the future. It asks the question, “Was this fun or painful?” and follows up accordingly.
Of course, that’s an extremely simplified model of how it all works, but it serves to illustrate a point.
We all know smoking is bad for our health. The research shows it, the numbers prove it, our declining health reminds us of it every day. Yet, we keep smoking, because when we light up, our brain thinks, “this is fun”, so the behavior is reinforced.
The long-term harm and health hazards smoking brings with it are too far detached from the action of smoking, so our mind never makes the connection.
In a study from the University of Illinois (Ober, 1968), researchers argued that in order to quit smoking, we must break the chain between the act of smoking and the gratification that follows, and that the key to doing this is self-control.
The problem is, self-control is an elusive beast. You set out bold and determined to break your habits, but then your self-control slips away and lets you down.
So in this specific study, the researchers set out to test three different methods of developing self-control, and to test which one would be most effective in helping participants quit smoking.
Study participants kick smoking habit by developing self-control in just 10 sessions
Sixty participants took part in the study. They each smoked an average of 20 cigarettes per day, had been smoking for more than a year, and wished to stop smoking.
The participants were randomly split into 4 groups, 3 of which were given a different type of treatment to help them quit smoking by developing self-control.
The 4th group was given no treatment whatsoever. In scientific research, this is called a “control group”. It helps researchers understand whether the changes happening in the test groups are due to the experiment, or to external factors.
In two of the groups, the participants were educated about the long-term adverse effects of smoking, and how to exercise self-control. They were also given cards with statements such as “I have the self-control not to smoke this cigarette” and “I don’t have to play the smoking game”. There were additional differences between these two groups, but they are beyond the scope of this article.
The third group was given a pocket-sized device that would allow participants to give themselves an electric jolt every time they craved a cigarette. They were also educated about the long-term adverse effects of smoking, and how to exercise self-control.
By the tenth session, all participants within the three treatment groups had managed to drastically cut down on cigarette smoking. The “control group” however, saw no such improvement.
Motivation is important, but awareness and reinforcement are crucial for building self-control and breaking bad habits
The study mentioned above indicates that “self-control can be established over smoking behavior” (Ober, 1968).
All participants in the study had the motivation to quit smoking. However, the three treatment groups were also made aware of the adverse effects, and also given cues to help reinforce their will-power.
This reinforcement took the form of either written messages for participants to read prior to lighting up a cigarette, or a pocket device that allowed participants to jolt themselves when they craved a cigarette.
The second technique (electric jolt) is called aversion conditioning, and its effects have been studied extensively over 80+ years of research and clinical studies. In fact, it has been found effective against all sorts of habits and compulsive behaviors including smoking, alcoholism, overeating, and gambling.
Bibliography
Ober, D. C. (1968). Modification of smoking behavior. Journal Of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 32(5, Pt.1), 543–549. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0026403
Next time you have your head to the desk to finish an assignment, consider taking the scenic route to refill your coffee mug.
A new study conducted at the University of Melbourne asked two separate groups to complete a sustained attention task. Halfway through, both groups viewed an image of a rooftop for 40 seconds. One group viewed a basic concrete roof, and the other viewed a green roof; it had a large garden filled with grass and flowers.
Once they returned to the task, the group that viewed the meadow scene had significantly improved cognitive processes. They were more attentive, accurate, and quicker to respond.
Not only does this study prove that nature has a positive effect on mental functioning, but it shows that you don’t need to find some untouched forest to take advantage of the research. By using a city-scape in their pictures, these researchers proved that nature, even in artificial form, has the capacity to improve your attention and performance.
So if you find yourself stalled in the middle of an essay or stuck on a single line in a book, try taking a step outside, or even looking at some images of nature on your phone. It can take less than a minute for you to restore your attention and get back to work.
You look at the mirror and spot a couple of things you’d like to improve. Some of them, you can’t do much about. Then your eyes fall on those couple of extra pounds of fat persistently hanging around your body, refusing to melt away on their own.
So you decide to hit the gym.
You stick your hands into your metaphorical pockets and pay for a full year in advance. You’re determined to commit and to reach your goals!
Here’s the problem.
As you get closer to the gym, you see this huge mountain of failure looming in front of you. It reminds you of all the times you started out, splurged on a membership, and then just quit a couple of sessions later.
Soon, your motivation runs out and you’ve got every reason in the book for skipping this workout… and then the next… and so on.
What gives?
If “looking hot and being fit” isn’t motivation enough, what’s it gonna take to finally drag you to the gym and get you working out without dropping out?
Research from the University of California seems to suggest that a little bribe could do the trick!
Study shows money makes for a great fitness motivator
Two researchers (Charness, Gneezy) took a group of university students and split them into 3 groups. None of these students exercised regularly.
The first group was given a handout explaining the benefits of exercise.
The second group was given the handout, and $25 to attend the gym once in a week.
The third group was given the handout, the $25, and an additional $100 to attend the gym eight more time over the following four weeks.
The results? The group three students who received the additional $100, kept showing up for the required gym sessions. The other groups dropped out.
But the surprising thing is that group three students kept showing up at the gym, even after they had completed the number of visits they had been paid for!
Instant rewards can keep you showing up till you build the habit
Exercising is a habit. And like any other habit, it takes repetition to build. The problem with exercising is that the rewards aren’t immediately visible. You go to the gym, you work out like a beast, but you’ve got nothing to show for it right away. So your brain thinks, “Nah… not fun” and convinces you to quit.
The “bribe” does two things.
It gives you an instant reward that you already associate with compensation for hard work
It keeps you showing up long enough for you to develop a habit.
You can start using this hack right now to get fit
Here’s how you can apply this.
Find a good friend, a family member or someone you trust. Explain that you plan to hit the gym for 8 weeks, once a week.
Agree on an amount of money that you consider significant without being exaggerated — 10% of your monthly salary should do.
Then, get them to pay you for each workout.
So, if you gave them $200 and you’ve committed to 8 weekly sessions, they will pay you $25 per session. If you don’t fulfill your end of the deal, you lose the money.
For some extra motivation, you could put aside the money you’ve earned and re-invest it into training gear.
Remember, all it takes to build a habit is repetition. If you manage to keep showing up during the first few times, you massively increase your chances that the habit will stick.
Bibliography
Charness, G., & Gneezy, U. Incentives to Exercise. SSRN Journal SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.905026
The secret to amazing sex, 6-pack abs, and earning more money has been hiding right underneath your nose.
Next time you have your head to the desk to finish an assignment, consider taking the scenic route to refill your coffee mug.