Why Do You Read 1000 Things About Change and Never Change
Knowing isn't doing. I post a lot of stuff about getting better at things. A common response to my posts is "I know that.", Knowing is great for watching Jeopardy. It's not nearly as good for life. So why is learning about improvement so easy and actually improving so damn hard?, Most any change that requires a lot of consistent mental effort is going to fail because you spend most of the day on autopilot. Via Charles Duhigg's excellent book The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Any change has to work when you're on autopilot. The importance of self-control is one of the biggest myths about improvement. Almost all the techniques for change that have been shown to work don't rely on thought or willpower. Changing Your Environment, If there are no cookies in the house, guess who's not eating cookies at 3AM? Manipulate your environment so you don't have to exert self-control. There's a great story on NPR that shows just how important context is in maintaining and ending bad habits, You're often lazy, busy or distracted so most things that are out of sight really are out of mind. More here. 20 Second Rule, Make the things you want to do take 20 seconds less time to start and the things you want to avoid take 20 seconds longer to get going. Amazon makes a gazillion dollars every year because of that "One Click" button. Before the cash register at a store there's the "impulse buy" section. Take the same idea, use it to your benefit. Via The Happiness Advantage The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work, More here. Peer Pressure is a Glorious Thing, Peer pressure helps kids more than it hurts them. And face it, you're still a big kid, you just have to pretend to be an adult most of the time  and it's exhausting. Surround yourself with people you want to be and it's far less taxing to do what you should be doing. Via Charles Duhigg's excellent book The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, More here. "If-Then" Plans, That's a fancy way of setting a standard response to a situation so you don't have to think. When someone asks you to vote for that "other" political party, to inject heroin or consider murder you probably don't actually consider it. You have a knee jerk script in your head that says "I don't do that.", If everything you did required a thoughtful decision, you'd never get out of bed in the morning. Too much of this and you're a computer. But used deliberately it can be quite powerful. Via Nine Things Successful People Do Differently, More here. What do they all have in common?, All of these techniques remove mental effort and can easily be incorporated into the routine you already have. That's their strength. But they all require a little bit of planning ahead of time. With these systems most people don't really fail  most people never really start. How do you plan?, Chip and Dan Heath distill effective behavior change down to three simple steps in their well-researched and enjoyable book Switch How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Pick one of the techniques. Plan for 20 minutes. You might struggle to implement for a couple days, but after that, it's easier to stay the course than it is to deviate. That's the secret. Don't try to reinvent yourself. You'll fail. Fit the new into the old. Make the new easier than the old. You change all the time. The TV shows you watch change, the products you buy change, and the projects at work change. Change is going to happen, no matter what. The question is, will you be in control of the change or will the change control you?, Join 25K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here. Related posts, What 10 things should you do every day to improve your life?, What do people regret the most before they die?, What five things can make sure you never stop growing and learning?, This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.