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I remember one of my good friends saying he only watches “trash” TV when exercising (Think reality TV or drama/soap-opera-type shows).
He claimed that watching these shows while working out was his reward for doing something good and that he would only pair this indulgence with a good habit, like exercising.
Only recently did I learn what he was doing… It’s called temptation bundling.
Temptation bundling refers to the pairing of an indulgence with a behavior that produces delayed rewards. In turn, this makes these delayed rewards much more gratifying and rewarding.
Dubbed a “simple way to boost your willpower” and a way to “stop procrastinating,” temptation bundling can help you foster healthier habits with greater ease.
In summary, it can help:
And it can be applied in so many different ways or scenarios.
Temptation bundling in the form of listening to enjoyable audiobooks while exercising even increased adherence in one study by 51%. Considering a large portion of the population is overweight, this is a big deal.
And if you’ve already got an exercise routine down-pat, don’t worry; temptation bundling is more than just exercise. It can apply to so many different habits.
So, let’s dig into how this works exactly. How does temptation bundling trick your mind into creating the habits you’ve been trying to create for years?
Related Article: The 40 Best Motivational Fitness Quotes to Help You Reach Your Goals
Temptation bundling uses a psychological principle called Premack’s Principle. According to good ol’ Wikipedia, this principle states,
“more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.”
In other words, to perform an undesirable activity, we can perform a desirable activity alongside it to make the undesirable one seem not so bad. In turn, this helps reinforce the less desirable activity, creating a habit.
In turn, it can help you quit the whole cycle of “I should do that…” or “I need to do that…” where we end up feeling guilty and as though we’ve let ourselves down yet again. In other words, it allows you to focus on your wants rather than your shoulds, while still doing right by your health.
Related Article: Helpful Tips to Break Bad Habits
Some common examples of temptation bundling include:
The examples are truly endless!
So, how can you begin temptation building. Here’s a quick breakdown.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, further suggests bringing habit stacking into the mix. This means attaching habits you want to perform to already existing habits. An example of this is performing five squats after each time your brush your teeth.
Often, the reason we don’t end up doing our “shoulds” is because they aren’t urgent. Yet, we know they’d benefit us.
Thus, by using tricks like temptation bundling and habit stacking, we can become more efficient at doing our “shoulds” and reaping the long-term benefits like those that exercise offers.
Then, you can implement your plan tomorrow.
If we make this list while we have a spare moment currently, we can begin to start to improve our lives and quit putting off those “shoulds.” Overall, this can lead to a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life, one where we go after our goals and crush them.
Read Next: Habit Stacking & Showing Up: Building Better Habits One Step at a Time
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