When it comes to health and lifestyle habits, most of us are always trying to improve something. It may be to exercise more, eat healthier or simply lose a few pounds. Although accomplishing these goals may seem easy at first, many people discover that it takes a lot of effort to get anywhere near them. Why is change so hard? Why can’t we just turn on some switch inside our minds and start behaving the way we want?
The truth is that change is a process, not an event. You don’t wake up one day and change habits that were ingrained in your soul. However, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible. To try to facilitate change, authors Chip Heath and Dan Heath wrote a very interesting book called “Switch. How to Change Things When Change is Hard.” In this book, the authors suggest that to promote change, we must engage both our rational mind and our emotional side, while reshaping the environment around us. Following are a few highlights of this amazing book.
- Find your bright spots. Most people spend too much time complaining about things they can’t do instead of focusing on what they can do. The authors suggest that you should look for your bright spots – things that are currently working for you – and try to replicate your success in other areas. For example, someone who could successfully quit smoking may use the same strategy (avoid situations that trigger the undesired behavior) to stop mindless eating. Determine your strengths and use them to achieve your goals.
- Have a clear plan of action. Let’s face it. It is very hard to get somewhere if you don’t know where you are going. Therefore, you must determine the specific route that will lead the way. “Be more active” is a pretty vague goal. What does it mean to be more active? Is it taking a walk in the park or running a marathon? Broad goals generally lead to inaction. Thus, you must create a detailed course of action – explicit guidelines you know you will be able to follow. Try stating your plan in a simple and clear sentence such as “I will walk in the park for 30 minutes every other day of the week for a month.” This way, you know exactly what you must do to get where you want to be.
- Discover what motivates you. To help you stay on track, you must discover powerful motivators that will provide the drive to get you where you want to be. Ask yourself why you want to achieve a particular goal to determine the true reason behind it. Perhaps you want to eat better for health reasons. But why do you want to be healthy? Of course no one wants to get sick, but if you examine the issue carefully, you may find out that what you really want is to be able to enjoy your grandkids. Now that’s your true motivation. This is what will keep you going when things get tough. However, to unravel it, you will need to give it some thought.
- Break down important goals into small, manageable steps. Many people don’t get things done because they get overwhelmed by big goals. That’s why the authors suggest you, “shrink the change.” Think about the very common goal, “I want to lose 10 pounds.” There are two problems with this goal. First, it does not state what you should do to lose weight; it simply tells you the outcome. Second, it is too overwhelming. You may initially feel motivated to lose 10 pounds, but if you don’t know what to do, you probably won’t get anywhere. However, if you transform this overwhelming goal into a small list of behaviors, you’ll be more likely to accomplish it in the long run. This is because each step gets you closer to the desired outcome and motivates you to keep on track. Thus, you could split the original plan into parts such as exercise every other day for 30 minutes. If you can do that, you will feel accomplished and motivated to do a little more later.
- Shape your path. This means that to succeed, you should adjust the environment around you to support your change. You may interpret that as cleaning up your pantry to remove any “unhealthy” food from your sight or reach. You may leave your gym clothes in your car to remind you to exercise after work. For social support, you may want to find a group of people who are going through the same process as you. The goal is to surround yourself with a positive environment that encourages you to move forward.