The four elements of the habit feedback loop are cue, craving, response, reward.

Cue is what triggers a craving. I work at an adventure park where people go through high ropes courses. We tell the participants during their orientation to the course to yell “red shirt” (the staff wears red shirts) if they need help at any point.

Craving is the desire to solve a problem. When I hear “red shirt”, I am immediately in action looking for the climber that has requested assistance so I can help them. The call to action I feel is my craving.

Response is what I actually do about the problem at hand. Once I have found the climber that called “red shirt”, I ask them what they need help with and act accordingly. The help I offer is my response.

Reward is the satisfaction I feel after successfully solving a problem. After helping the participant, I feel a sense of accomplishment and competency. These feelings are satisfactory and will enable me to continue to act similarly to the same cues in the future.

The four laws of behavior change are make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying.

Habits Scorecard:

Wake up =
Lay in bed for ~30 minutes –
Make coffee =
Make food +
Eat +
Take meds +
Brush teeth +
Check email/ canvas +
Start doing work +
Take break/ talk to friend/ get on social media =
Work more +
Eat/ take break =
Take meds +
Work until ~6pm +

A behavior I have become more aware of is my need to start my day off with coffee or some kind of drink, could be water or a smoothie. It makes me feel good to start off the day drinking something I perceive as healthy.

Rubric/Criteria for Success: