Last time we started looking at Chip and Dan Heath’s book entitled “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” and how it applies to improving our health.
Directing the rider as we talked about last week, usually isn’t hard as most rational people will agree that exercise, a good diet and stress reduction are staples to improving our health. The problem usually arises in motivating the elephant, the emotional side. No matter how smart our rider is, if the elephant doesn’t want to give up potato chips and sitting in front of the TV we are going to have a hard time making a change.
First step to motivate the elephant is finding the feeling. Knowing something is never going to be enough to cause change. You have to feel something for it to stick. How does it feel when it is difficult to get up from a chair? Not be able to climb a flight of stairs without stopping half way to catch your breath? Having to sit and watch your grandkids play and not be able to join in? What did it feel like when you could run a mile? What was it like to not be on 4 or 5 different medications because of health issues you have going on? How much fun would it be to play tag with your grandchildren in the yard? You have to find the feeling of why getting healthier is important to you, knowing you need to get healthier is never going to be enough.
The next thing is to shrink the change. Our emotional elephant can get spooked very easily when the task looks like it is too big to accomplish. We need to break down the change until it no longer spooks the elephant. Walking for 30 minutes seems impossible when you currently can’t walk more then 5 minutes without needing a break. But I can probably walk 6 minutes by the end of next week if I add 10 seconds every day. If I did that every week, in 6 months I would be walking for 30 minutes. Adding six helpings of fruits and vegetables is a lot when I’m lucky to get in one. But I can go from one to two for a month, keeping adding one per month and in less then 6 months I am where I want to be.
The last thing is to grow your people. This means to cultivate a sense of identity and instill a growth mind-set. People with a growth mind-set see their abilities are like muscles that can grow and change, fixed mind-set people passively accept status quo and don’t challenge it. A growth mind-set individual recognizes that failure is a natural part of the change process not a sign of overall defeat. The challenges now are the price for the pay off later as time goes by working toward success. A growth mind-set can be taught and practice is the key because everything is hard before it becomes easy.
The last thing we will discuss next week is shaping the path for the rider and elephant.
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