With very few exceptions, most of us resent making any effort. And whenever possible, we choose the easiest way out.
A quick search online will reveal hundreds of articles that explain why We’re wired to take the path of least resistance, or present Scientifically proven ways to work smarter, not harder or why Hard work is not enough, and the list goes on and on.
Effort & Habits
Why is this the case? Are we all slackers and slouches?
The answer lies in neuroscience – our brains are wired to conserve energy because, evolutionary, we never knew when our next meal would be, so we needed to make sure we survived until the next one. That is why our brains are lazy. And they hate effort so much, that they convince us to keep buying the same products repeatedly.
UP TO 95% OF OUR DECISION-MAKING PROCESS HAPPENS AT THE NON-CONSCIOUS LEVEL
This is how habits are formed. And you would be surprised to learn that they control most of our behavior. Up to 95% of our decision-making process happens at the non-conscious level, meaning it relies on automatic processes. Kahneman does an amazing job of describing these processes in his book, Thinking Fast and Slow. He describes System 1 – that is fast, non-conscious and automatic – and System 2 – slow and in charge with conscious processing – and explains why we live so much in System 1.
If you want to read the rest of the article written by Ana Iorga, go to the Green Book Blog, where it was originally published. Enjoy!