Six key steps to achieve lasting change

 Six key steps to achieve lasting change

　　 It is difficult to change. Almost all "New Year's Resolutions" ended in failure. But at my company, The Energy Project, we have devised a proven, effective and lasting way to make changes, both for my own life and for our customers.

　　The theoretical basis of our method is that people are habitual animals. 95% of our behavior is habitual, or in response to a strong external stimulus. Only 5% of choices are conscious and autonomous choices.

　　 In 1911, the mathematician Alfred North Whitehead came up with a conclusion which was confirmed by researchers almost 100 years later. "There is a truth that everyone thinks is self-evident, but it is really wrong," he said. "The truth is that we should develop the habit of knowing what we are doing at any time. The truth is the opposite. Civilization progress The sign of is that we are more and more able to take important actions without thinking."

　　 Most of us over-exaggerate the importance of willpower and discipline. A genius survey conducted by Roy Baumeister and others shows that self-control has a very limited effect, and that it will gradually decay with every conscious self-discipline.

　　 In order to achieve lasting changes, we should rely less on the prefrontal cortex, and more on the original part of the brain, that is, the part where habits are formed.

　　 To put it simply, the more stylized and routine behavior, the less energy required to do it, and the greater the possibility of automatic recurrence.

　　 Here are the six key steps to achieve lasting change:

　　 1. Be highly precise and specific.

　　 Imagine a typical New Year’s resolution-"Exercise regularly." Such determination is destined to be unfulfilled. If you decide in advance the day and time of exercise, and what kind of exercise to do each time, your chances of achieving your determination will be much greater.

　　 For example, you plan to do 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at 6 am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If there is a force that you cannot control that prevents you from doing exercise one day, you will automatically switch to doing this exercise at 9 AM on Saturday.

　　Researchers call this "execution intent", which can greatly increase your chances of success.

  

　　 2. Only one new challenge at a time.

Over the years, I have formed a variety of habits, from weight loss training and running, to non-stop 90 minutes of doing the most important things every morning before taking a break, and 90 minutes on Saturday morning to chat with my wife about last week life.

　　 Every time, I take the practice I started as my only focus. Even then, sometimes, I have to try several times before I can keep this habit long enough to make it truly automatic.

　　 A computer can run several programs at the same time, but humans perform best when they execute only one program at a time.

　　 3. Not too much, not too little.

　　 When we change our lives, one of the most common mistakes we make is: we are too demanding and can't bear it. Think about it, for many years, you haven't exercised. Suddenly, you feel refreshed. You plan to jog 30 minutes a day and run 5 days a week. The result is likely to be that you find that such a large amount of exercise is too painful and you give up within a few days of running.

　　 It is easy for us to go to the other extreme, which is not working hard enough. You planned to walk for 10 minutes at lunch time 3 days a week, and you persisted. The problem is that after a few weeks, if you don't feel any weight loss, your motivation will diminish.

　　 The only way to really improve is to challenge your comfort zone. Find a middle ground-it can push you effectively and make you feel the gain; it won't be too much, so you don't want to stick to it.

　　 4. Avoid temptation.

　　 Suppose you sit in front of a plate of fragrant chocolate chip cookies for a long time. The desire to diet slowly disappears with the passage of time, because the diet plan is based on regularly resisting the food that you like to eat. Finally, we exhausted our limited self-control ability.

　　Similarly, when you are working on a project that requires your full attention, and you try to control yourself not to reply to new emails that keep appearing, your control will gradually weaken.

　　 The only feasible way is to avoid these temptations. For e-mail, the effective method is to close all e-mails during a specified time period and reply collectively at other times. For dieters, the solution is not to let yourself see the food you don't want to eat, and to focus on when and how much food you plan to eat. The less you have to think about what you should do, the more likely you are to succeed.

　　 5. Find out where the resistance is.

　　From the things we have been doing, we can get a sense of comfort and security, even if these things are fundamentally not beneficial to us. Researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey call this "altered immunity." They found that even the strongest determination to change can also be offset by the "antagonistic", equally strong, but usually imperceptible, determination to reject change.

　　 There is a very simple way to make your confrontational thoughts visible. Think of a change you really want to make. Then ask yourself what you are doing or not doing that weaken your resolve. For example, if you are trying to focus on important things, your determination to fight is to reply to those emails in time.

For any change you want to initiate, the key is to find out the determination to fight against it, and then ask yourself: "How can I design this approach to get the benefits I want, and at the same time minimize its cost ?"

　　 6. Believe it or not.

　　 Change is difficult and painful. You will experience countless failures. Ordinary people have to try 6 times to finally achieve a change. But following the above steps, based on my own experience and the experience of tens of thousands of customers, I can assure you that you will succeed, and you don’t even need to experience a few failures to succeed.