In his book the happiness advantage happiness researcher Shana core
discusses how he wanted to make practicing guitar a daily habit
however he encountered a problem one that plagues everyone he couldn't
motivate himself to practice no matter how much he tried to motivate himself
his guitar remained in his cupboard with the guitars is a few steps away Shawn
still couldn't push himself to pick up the instrument so why was he so hesitant
to start practicing a chorus problem was a common one if you want to change a
habit in the long term in the beginning you have to rely on willpower but
willpower is a finite resource and can't be relied upon in other words the more
decisions you make on a daily basis the more likely you are to experience what
psychologists call decision fatigue once you experience decision fatigue
improving habits especially at the end of a stressful day becomes less of a
priority habitual negative behaviors like forgoing the gym in favor of easier
ones like watching television become routine it becomes an almost inescapable
rut given a choice disempowering habits almost always trump behaviors that
stretch us they offer us a path of least resistance and when regularly forged
become the easier choice but what if you had a tool to reshape that path entirely
a tool that made positive habits more accessible what you need to focus on a
common problem people have with changing their habits is learning how to start if
you think of a habit you tend to think of the habit in its entirety all habits
are comprised of multiple steps tiny actions required to necessitate it and
thinking about it is enough to overwhelm anyone for example when you think about
going to the gym you don't focus on the routine part of the habit loop instead
you focus on everything else that the habit involves you think about packing
your gym bag traveling to the gym changing into your gym clothes
warming up exercising showering worming down and finally traveling home
that's a lot of things to think about but to ease into a new habit
you shouldn't picture the task in its entirety simply focus on the first
action you need to take care of in my case when going to the gym I only focus
on picking up my gym bag which is placed by my front door however what if we
redirected our focus from not only what we needed to do to start our habits but
also how we can make the start as easy as possible the power of activation
energy activation energy as ocker explains is that spark you need to start
in physics activation energy is the initial spark needed to catalyze a
reaction the same energy both physical and mental is needed of people to
overcome inertia and kickstart a positive habit in occurs example he
realized that having to remove his guitar from his closet to practice
increase the effort he needed to get started even if that effort only cost
him an extra 20 seconds those 20 seconds meant the difference between doing his
habit and not he came to a resolution put his guitar in the center of his
apartment guess what happened he practiced guitar for 21 days straight
without exception ocker called this the twenty second rule in his own words
lowering the barrier to change by just twenty seconds was all it took to help
me form a new habit in conclusion in order to adopt new habits you must avoid
relying on willpower and instead restrict the activation energy to start
to a maximum of twenty seconds which will allow your mind to see the activity
as being easier to adopt allowing you to form a solid habit for the future thanks
for watching if you enjoyed this video hit the like button and if you're new to
the channel please subscribe for more informative content as a bonus I've left
a link in the description if you want to pick up the book the happiness advantage
by Sean AK or
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