Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 15 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Reprogram your brain to enjoy hard habits
— From Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
“You can make hard habits more attractive if you can learn to associate them with a positive experience,” says James Clear, author of Atomic Habits and habit, decision-making and continuous-improvement guru.
“Sometimes, all you need is a slight mind-set shift.”
For example, Clear points to the way we talk about everything we have to do in a given day: “You have to wake up early for work. You have to make another sales call for your business. You have to cook dinner for your family.”
Then he says, “Now imagine changing just one word: You don’t ‘have’ to. You ‘get’ to.”
“You get to wake up early for work. You get to make another sales call for your business. You get to cook dinner for your family. By simply changing one word, you shift the way you view each event. You transition from viewing these behaviors as burdens and turn them into opportunities.”
The author says, “The key point is that both versions of reality are true. You have to do those things, and you also get to do them. We can find evidence for whatever mind-set we choose.”
So, it’s up to us to intentionally choose the one view that we prefer. Personally, I like the one that is uplifting. This reminds me a lot of the book The Art of Possibility where the authors suggest exchanging an AND for a BUT to open up possibilities. So true!
It’s all about perspective. Clear shares a story of a man in a wheelchair who was asked if it was difficult being confined. His response? “I’m not confined to my wheelchair—I am liberated by it. If it wasn’t for my wheelchair, I would be bed-bound and never able to leave my house.”
“Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attractive.”
Clear points out to a few habits that are hard to keep and makes a few suggestions on how to see them from a new perspective:
- Exercise: “Many people associate exercise with being a challenging task that drains energy and wears you down. You can just as easily view it as a way to develop skills and build you up. Instead of telling yourself ‘I need to go run in the morning,’ say ‘It’s time to build endurance and get fast.’”
- Finance: “Saving money is often associated with sacrifice. However, you can associate with freedom rather than limitation if you realize one simple truth: living below your current means increases your future means.”
- Meditation: “Anyone who has tried meditation for more than three seconds knows how frustrating it can be when the next distraction inevitably pops into your mind. You can transform frustration into delight when you realize that each interruption gives you a chance to return to your breath. Distraction is a good thing because you need distractions to practice meditation.”
While these little mind-set shifts aren’t magic, Clear says that they can definitely work to help you change the feelings associated with a particular habit or situation.
Further, he says, if you create a motivation ritual, “You simply practice associating your habits with something you enjoy, then you can use that cue whenever you need a bit of motivation.” This could be as simple as playing the same song before you start working out to get in the mood for exercising, or doing a few jumping jacks or power poses before going to give a presentation to get your blood pumping and set your mind to “presenting mode,” etc. Do what works best for you: create your own motivation ritual and that will make it easier and better to stick to the habit you want to develop or strengthen.
“The key to finding and fixing the causes of your bad habits is to reframe the associations you have about them. It’s not easy, but if you can reprogram your predictions, you can transform a hard habit into an attractive one.”
Do you plan on starting a motivation ritual or you already have one? Let me know in the comments here, we can all learn from each other and get ideas that way!
ACTION
TODAY: When you find yourself feeling the burden of all you have to do, remember to exchange have for get. Try it, there’s nothing to lose and much to gain. The language you use will determine how you feel, use it to create the best mind-set for you.
FUTURE: Create a motivation ritual around those habits that are hard for you. Stick to it, one day at a time, for 90 days until the ritual is fully ingrained. Remember what Og Mandino said (I’m paraphrasing): if I am to become a slave to my habits, I might as well develop good habits.
Know someone who could use more GETs and less HAVEs? Or someone who could benefit from reframing? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!