Top 10 Mistakes in Changing Your Behavior and How to Fix Them
(From Stanford University)
1. Relying on Willpower for Long Term Change
(Solution – Imagine that Willpower Doesn’t Exist)
2. Attempting Big Leaps Instead of Baby Steps
(Solution – Seek Tiny Successes, One after Another)
3. Ignoring How Environment Shapes Behavior
(Solution – Change Your Context)
4. Trying to Stop Old Behavior Instead of Creating New Ones
(Solution – Focus on Action, Not Avoidance)
5. Blaming Failure on Lack of Motivation
(Solution – Make the Behavior Easier to do)
6. Underestimating the Power of Triggers
(Solution – Realize that No Behavior Happens Without a Trigger)
7. Believing that Information Leads to Action
(Solution – Realize that Humans Aren’t Always Rational)
8. Focusing on Abstract Goals Rather More than Concrete Behaviors
(Solution – Abstract: Get In Shape, Concrete: Walk 15 Minutes A Day)
9. Seeking to Change a Behavior Forever, Not for a Short Time
(Solution – A Fixed Period Works Better Than “Forever”)
10. Assuming That Behavior Change is Difficult
(Solution – Behavior Change is Not So Hard When You Have the Right Process)
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
— Gandalf, J.R.R. Tolkien
I’m Alright
Life Less Ordinary
