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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BDNF

2021 Strength Training Program (Free Download)

2021 Strength Training Program (FREE DOWNLOAD)

This is my workout cycle for the next 26-weeks. It is ideal for intermediate to advance lifters. I based the program on Brad Schoenfeld’s Max Muscle Plan, with some tweaks by yours truly. It is an excellent book; well researched with practical guidelines and suggestions.

The attached spreadsheet takes all the guesswork out of selecting the proper weights for each exercise. This training program is designed to vary your weights and repetitions from week to week (Undulating Periodization). Your training intensity will ramp up over the course of several weeks in an attempt to set a new personal record (PR). Each time you set a new PR, I recommend you re-calculate your 1RM and reprint the spreadsheet.

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behavior change, environmental design, habit

TWEAK YOUR ENVIRONMENT – BETTER ENVIRONMENT BETTER BEHAVIOR

“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.” James Clear

“Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment.” G. Stanley Hall

Change agents frequently find that what appears to be a people problem is a situation problem. Instead of trying to change people’s attitudes, they tweak the environment and make change happen painlessly. Instead of relying on workers following proper procedures, safety engineers install guards and controls to prevent workers from taking shortcuts. They know that it’s easier to tweak the environment than to force compliance. We can likewise tweak our own environment to foster good habits and discourage bad ones. 

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habit, mini habits, tiny habits

THE MAGIC OF MINI HABITS

”Doing a little bit every day has a greater impact than doing a lot on one day. How much greater? Profoundly so, because a little bit every day is enough to grow into a lifelong foundational habit, and those are a big deal.” ― Stephen Guise

So, what is a mini habit? Stephen Guise, the creator of the mini habit concept, describes mini habits as stupid small versions of a habit you want to develop. Stephen was struggling to exercise. He felt overwhelmed by the prospect of a half-hour workout. He couldn’t get motivated, and he didn’t have enough willpower to train. Frustrated, he decided to shrink his workout.

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