Skip to main content

Basil Ganglia and Habit Formation

 Habit is the compromise between being completely controlled by our instinct and being completely free to make intentional decisions about whatever we want to do. It is the trade-off we have made between instinct and reason in order to maintain speed and efficiency. 

Though we have become more and more adept at making complex decisions, it would be too slow and inefficient to have to make decisions about every single thing we ever did on a day-to-day basis. 

To improve speed and efficiency for example, our brains developed the ability to do our most repetitive routines without making any decisions at all. We could do them by habit.

Habit formation works by passing control over the most routine behaviors to the more primitive basal ganglia. 

As we do a routine over and over again our brain can determine what prompts the routine to begin ("the cue") and what prompts it to end ("the reward") and creates a "chunk" of automatic behavior. 

Brushing your teeth is a "chunk." You get the cue (time for bed) and without wrestling with any complex decisions simply go through the motions of putting the toothpaste on the brush, brushing your teeth, and rinsing the brush. 

"Chunking" allows complex activities to be controlled by the super-efficient "lizard brain" of the basil ganglia. 

Learn more at the Ransford Global College online

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Liberalism under attack?

I believe the answer may be yes. It's yes because two powerful states in Asia: China and Russia have consolidated authoritarian regime, that the end points may not be visible soon.  These two forces are working tirelessly to globalize oligarchy and authoritarianism. Their gospels has been noised abroad. Their influences influences have been displayed in some nations (with pseudo democracy) in the global south,  In Africa, liberal democracy have been badly weaken by the character of people in leadership: abuse of offices, stealing of public funds without questions and necessary punishments, plus rigging of presidential elections, leading to changing fortunes ànd quagmires. Beside, the curent hyper-inflation in Nigeria is blamed on the recent resurgence of Adams Smith and liberal economics doctrines (and partly by loyalty to Washington consensus: policies and insititios designed by the US government to globalize capitalism and it's associated cultural systems). The market is now

Sweet Spot

How do you create a digital strategy that involves customers in an energized social community?  How do you create an engaged, active “go-to” website?   Prophet's David Aaaker says, You must change the orientation of marketing from selling the offering, the brand, and firm to becoming an active partner with a shared interest program around a customer’s “sweet spot.” A sweet spot reflects customers’ “thinking and doing” time, beliefs and values, activities and passions, possessions or places they treasure. Ideally, it would be a part of, if not central to, their self-identity and lifestyle and reflect a higher-order value proposition, much beyond the benefits provided by the offering. To illustrate, Pampers went beyond diapers by creating the Pampers Village community that provides a “go to” place for all issues relating to babies and child care. Its five sections – pregnancy, newborn, baby, toddler, and preschooler – all have a menu of topics. Its online commu

You can Create New Business Subcategory by altering an establish business category, competes in the pacific northwest, united states, turning the conventional idea of an original category upside down Like Umpqua Bank.

 Umpqua Bank competes in the pacific northwest, united states, turns the conventional idea of brand category upside down. Most consumers would never describe  a bank transaction a soul-satisfying, but Oregun-based  Umpqua Bank   become affiliated with cafe/retail categories in order to establish points-of-difference between itself nd other banks. Its stores offer music, coffee, wifi access, and of course, banking service. About a decade ago,  Umpqua  trailed U.S bank and Well-fargo in market share but later decided to go into new territory: Think bank across with your local Starbucks. No longer called bank or branches, “Umpqua Stores  were designed to stimulate cozy connection between customers, and feature computer cafe with wifi access and branded merchandise, including Umpqua’s own blend of coffee - must-have in the Northwestern United states, a coffee obsessed region. ”  Like starbucks,  Umpqua Bank  made musics part of its product mix. Working with portland’s Rumblefish,