Change the incentive

Alter the payoff or consequence that keeps reinforcing the behavior.

The French course you bought sits at 12% complete. Every session is all cost up front, awkwardness, mental strain, and all payoff someday, a vague future trip. Meanwhile the payoff for skipping is immediate and reliable: relief, plus a free evening. Given that scoreboard, your behavior is not a character flaw. It is arithmetic.

Change the incentive alters the payoff or consequence that keeps reinforcing a behavior. The cue: a pattern persisting because it keeps getting paid, or a desired one starving because it never does. Steps: write out the actual current payoffs for both branches, honestly, including relief and comfort; restructure so the desired behavior pays sooner, pairing study with a genuinely pleasant ritual, a standing session with a friend, or a stake you forfeit by skipping; where possible remove the old payoff rather than just adding a new one on top; then watch whether behavior tracks the new arithmetic within two weeks. The visible change: the habit starts running on its own payoffs rather than your willpower. Handle with care, though: incentives get gamed, and rewarding a proxy, minutes logged rather than conversations attempted, buys theater instead of French. Don't add rewards where intrinsic interest already works; payment can crowd it out.