Million Dollar Habits

Million Dollar Habits – Page 51 
food, and the bell would ring. After repeating this stimulus-response action several 
times, the dog would salivate automatically upon hearing the bell, even when no 
meat was present. 
In the same way, you can develop conditioned responses to people and situations 
as the result of previous experiences, either positive or negative. For example, if 
there is someone in your life that you love and care about, the thought of that 
person, or the sound of that person on the phone, will immediately cause you to 
smile and feel happy. 
If there is a person in your life, usually from your past, who has hurt you, and 
made you angry or unhappy, the very thought of that person, or even the person’s 
name, will immediately trigger feelings of anger or sadness. Many people become 
trapped by memories of unhappy experiences, which have become habitual 
responses, and are often unable to let them go. 
As Simple As ABC 
There is another model of habit pattern development called the “ABC Model.” 
These three letters stand for 
antecedents-behaviors-consequences
. What 
psychologists have discovered is that the 
antecedents
, what has happened in the 
past, stimulate only 15% of your behaviors. Fully 85% of your behaviors are 
motivated by what you expect to happen in the future, by the anticipated 
consequences
.

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Million Dollar Habits – Page 52 
For example, if you are preparing to give a presentation, or apply for a job, 85% of 
your motivation will be determined by what you expect to happen if you are 
successful. Only 15% of your motivation will be decided by what you have done in 
the past in similar circumstances. 
Expectations Theory 
There is a large block of work in psychology called 
“expectations theory.”
The 
conclusions they have reached are that people are motivated to act in a particular 
way by what they expect to happen more than any other factor or influence. In 
other words, you do the things you do because of the consequences you feel you 
will experience as a result. Expectations Theory explains small things, like what 
you do and say in a social situation, and large matters, such as capital movements 
in the international financial markets. 
As we discussed in Chapter One, you can actually manufacture your own 
expectations. You can develop the habit of expecting good things to happen, no 
matter how they may appear at the moment. Your expectations then influence your 
attitudes and the way you treat other people. Your attitudes, expectations and 
behaviors will then have an inordinate influence on the way things actually work 
out. In effect, you can control much of your own future by expecting things to 
happen in a positive way. 
Unfortunately, 
negative
expectations also become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you 
expect something to turn out poorly, this will affect your attitude and behavior. 
Your negative attitude then increases the likelihood that you will experience the 

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