For context of this post:
In the self-development sphere there is a tendency to take classical and operant conditioning, one of many well-known psychological school thoughts, relabel it and then sell it as a new way to organize your life under. The gist of classical conditioning is: if you combine a stimulus to one which elicits a reaction (e.g. hunger, fear), meaning they happen in the same timeframe – no other interaction needed, then you will associate the reaction with the stimulus as well. Don’t combine wanted behaviors with scenarios you don’t like or find exhaustingly hard. Don’t combine unwanted behaviors with scenarios you like. Don’t learn in a stressful environment or else you will associate learning with stress. Don’t be intimate with a person you’re unsure with or else you will associate being intimate with uncertainty. For operant conditioning the important lesson is similar: reward behaviors you want to see, punish behaviors you don’t want to see. Don’t eat delicious food while watching TV or soon you’ll want . Eat delicious food in the café you decided to work on projects instead. Don’t be self-depreciating when someone compliments you, thank them and do something nice for them instead. While the research about conditioning yourself is limited, the effect of being conditioned is there without a doubt. From cognitive processes such as priming (thinking about one specific thing leads to thinking about another connected specific thing) or instances where little children had been conditioned into fearing white fur. The most important lesson of this: try to get to a situation where you will be exposed to the stimuli which will condition you in the direction you want to. Friends who support you in what you want to do, making it more difficult to access electronics until the distraction is sufficiently reduced, applying apps and following selected and fitting people to have proper exposure on your feed and more. This will take a while to refine but that is okay, you can adjust it any time if you feel like it doesn’t fit. But the scientific finding which makes you fully accountable for your actions is the following.
Why every action counts
Imagine that a complete functioning of the brain, covering every activity you need and want, is made out of money which is earned via a relay race. That parts of the brain are runners with their own specialty in the race, with weak links and strong performers and that some obstacles are only overcome by certain runners specializing in that specific one. Each of them gets trained individually, whenever they do their part it gets easier for them and they have a better performance. Imagine that this is the case in every run in which a runner performs. Now forgive me for this analogy but this is essentially what is going on in your brain. There are a lot of races that have to be run parallel. And just like the runners there are (xy million) neurons in the brain which relay the signals in the brain which enable action and thought. With every initiated action this is continued further and further. The signals for the specific action are refined and strengthened, sometimes even additional races started, meaning other neurons recruited. Let me repeat: this is done with every action. With every action biological processes are initiated which change the chemicals that are dedicated to an action. This happens not only when an action is done but also when an action is not done. Runners can worsen their performance if they do not put in effort, this is the same for neurons. It is important to act in different areas to not get worse, because just like with the runners, mastering one specific part will not win the race. Every action you do will make it easier for next time. It is up to you if it is eating processed food or working or work tasks you know you like to put off.
