BDNF, environment trumps willpower, environmental design, shape your environment, willpower

ENVIRONMENT TRUMPS WILLPOWER

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A stable environment where everything has a place, and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.” James Clear, author of Atomic Habits 

Change agents often find that what appears to be a people problem is a situation problem. They know the best way to change people’s behavior is by changing their environment. The Second Rule of Behavior Change, Shape the Path, makes behavior change happen naturally.
Instead of relying on workers following proper procedures, safety engineers install guards and controls to prevent workers from taking shortcuts. They know that it is easier to tweak the environment than force compliance. Likewise, we can tweak our environment to foster good habits and discourage bad ones.

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bias toward action, Discipline, dream, dream big, end procrastination, fat loss, fat loss motivation, Fitness, fitness motivation, habit, habit of success, happines, motivation, new year's resolutions, success, weight loss, weight loss motivation

THE HABIT: Week-2 (Motivation)

THE HABIT focuses on how you start each day; your morning routine. Each day is your life in miniature. As you take control of your morning, you’ll take control of your life. Tiny improvements to our daily routine put our lives on a better trajectory.

Instead of waiting for January 1st to arrive, begin adopting a few small habits so that when the ball drops, you’ll already have built up some momentum. I will present a series of small habits you can adopt each week to improve your life.

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Jeff Emblen1 Comment
willpower, willpower depletion, Willpower is like a muscle

WILLPOWER – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

“Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over for other things.” Charles Duhigg

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WILLPOWER

Almost every New Year’s Resolution ends in failure because people don’t understand the nature of habits, willpower, or how to improve them. People make a list of things they will do, lose weight, drink less, exercise more, reduce their credit card debt, and stop smoking.

They will look at their list and blame their lack of willpower when they should blame their list and their lack of focus. Our willpower is severely limited, and every demand for self-restraint draws from a single source. No one has enough willpower for that list. Sometimes a single willpower challenge will feel like one demand too many. “The man who chases two rabbits catches neither.” Confucius

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behavior change, willpower, willpower depletion

DON’T OVERESTIMATE YOUR RESOLVE – BECOME A REALISTIC OPTIMIST

“Research shows that people who think they have the most willpower are actually the most likely to lose control when tempted. For example, smokers who are the most optimistic about their ability to resist temptation are the most likely to relapse four months later, and overoptimistic dieters are the least likely to lose weight. Why? They fail to predict when, where, and why they will give in. They expose themselves to more temptation,” Kelly McGonigal.

One of the most potent strategies for reaching a goal is to identify the obstacles ahead of time and develop a plan to address each before they are encountered. We want to be optimistic, but we don’t want to be a naive optimists. The naive optimist ignores the obstacles in their way and believes that they will not confront any challenges. The realistic optimist believes in their ability to accomplish their goal despite the obstacles in their way. They acknowledge and prepare for the challenges, which makes them much more likely to succeed. We want to have faith in our ability to overcome obstacles, not naively believe we won’t encounter them.

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behavior change, environment trumps willpower, environmental design, habit

ENVIRONMENT TRUMPS WILLPOWER

“Environment is of supreme importance. It is greater than willpower.” Paramahansa Yogananda

Motivation and willpower are valuable qualities, but they are too capricious to build habits. Any habit-forming strategy that relies too heavily on either is like trying to build a house on shifting sand.

A properly designed environment is a rock-solid foundation for behavior change. That’s because once we engineer our environment, it remains constant. It provides the stability that habits require to flourish. Environmental prompts initiate most of our habits, which is why environmental design is so powerful.

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