The kids would be home-schooled, a rarity in Hungary at the time. Laszlo decided chess would be a suitable field for the experiment, and he laid out a plan to raise his children to become chess prodigies. Laszlo believed in this idea so strongly that he wanted to test it with his own children-and he was writing to Klara because he “needed a wife willing to jump on board.” Klara was a teacher and, although she may not have been as adamant as Laszlo, she also believed that with proper instruction, anyone could advance their skills.
His mantra was “A genius is not born, but is educated and trained.” He claimed that with deliberate practice and the development of good habits, a child could become a genius in any field. In fact, it was all he believed in: he completely rejected the idea of innate talent.
IN 1965, a Hungarian man named Laszlo Polgar wrote a series of strange letters to a woman named Klara. The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike. It is the anticipation of a reward-not the fulfillment of it-that gets us to take action. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act. Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming. The 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it attractive. Engineering a truly irresistible habit is a hard task, but this simple strategy can be employed to make nearly any habit more attractive than it would be otherwise. Temptation bundling is one way to create a heightened version of any habit by connecting it with something you already want. We began this chapter by discussing supernormal stimuli, which are heightened versions of reality that increase our desire to take action. Doing the thing you need to do means you get to do the thing you want to do.
The hope is that eventually you’ll look forward to calling three clients or doing ten burpees because it means you get to read the latest sports news or check Facebook. If you want to check Facebook, but you need to exercise more:Īfter I pull out my phone, I will do ten burpees (need).Īfter I do ten burpees, I will check Facebook (want).
If you want to watch sports, but you need to make sales calls:Īfter I get back from my lunch break, I will call three potential clients (need).Īfter I call three potential clients, I will check ESPN (want). If you want to read the news, but you need to express more gratitude:Īfter I get my morning coffee, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened yesterday (need).Īfter I say one thing I’m grateful for, I will read the news (want).