The Pain, Punishment, False Reward Cycle

Most people in management or leadership roles have heard of Pavlov’s theory at some point in their life. It’s about the dog being conditioned at feeding time. When the mind is reactive we seek out rewards to soothe ourselves. The formula is like this Pain –> do something to stop it (good or bad) –> feel a sense of relief )often temporary) –> associate this relief as a reward for doing the action necessary to stop the pain.

Pain drives unhealthy behaviors in people and then we think we’re getting this reward by doing something unhealthy we receive this false reward. The brain’s neurotransmitters get a hit. People talk a lot nowadays about those dopamine hits and different serotonin, all these different things, a lot of different chemicals within the body that the body produces through hormones. There’s a short-term relief and then from there the rational mind does not feel great from that act and the cycle repeats until it is broken. This is something you can start coaching people on and you can start calling out behavior and say: I notice that this is a behavior that you’re doing and you know how does that make you feel at the end? It’s the same consistent result but its not the result that you’re trying to get. So, here are some ways that perhaps you can go about getting the result. That’s a healthy result and a result that you’re going to be happy with. The key is, its ok to want to stop the pain cycle, as long as you are doing healthy things to break the cycle.