Views: 1 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2015-06-25 Origin: Site
It's an article from Fortune China, which maybe useful to you if you are bothered by your old habits.
It's summer, by now you've either broken your new year's resolutions or successfully integrated them into your rountines.
If you are in the former group, you are in luck. This is actually a terrific time to create new habits or to shed old ones. That's because the important elements of habit change aren't tied to a season. Moreover, the experience of failing to change can actually give you curcial information that will ensure victory the next time around.
For one, it's important to begin the change process with what social scientists call" pre-contemplation", or really thinking through the pros and cons of your current situation, what is keeping you in the bad habit, and what would be the benefit of changing. Such thinking helps make you aware of factors that might hold you back.
"People tend to fail because they start directly into the contemplating phase-they rethink their personal beliefs, capabilities, they start thinking, "I can do this, I can change jobs, I can update my resume." But what they havn't done is become fully aware of the current situation and consequences of continuing with what you're doing" says Sebastian Bailey, New York area author of Mind-Gym: Achieve more by thinking differently
Indeed, if you resolve to change your behavior at a time of year when you have time to plan-as opposed to when the Jan.1 deadline encourages you to impulsively make resolutions-You'll be better prepared to handle bumps in the road. When you know what made you falter in your resolve to stay off facebook at work, for instance, you can craft a plan to sidestep that problem in the future. This is part of the third stage of habit change, which is preparation, according to Bailey.
In the Power of Habit, journalist Charles Duhigg explains habits as a combination of trigger or cue that prompts us to act in a certain way, followed by a routine that cultimates in a reward we receive from engaging that habibt. For example, if we have a habit of eating an afternoon snack, the cue may be seeing a colleague headed for the cafeteria, followed by the rountine of joining him for biscotti and coffee, which give us the reward of ca caffeine and sugar rush.
Once a habit has been established, the neural pathways in our brain accosiated with that habit can not be eliminated, we can only form new ones by replacing the habit with a new routine. It's important to examine your habits to understand what your motivation is, for instance, do you acuatlly like that sugar and caffeine jolt? Or are you seeking social connection during the afternoon lull? That insight will gove you the tools to change your habit.
If you have a habit of checking your twitter when you are bored at work, try instead to do a quick set of pushups, go for a walk, chat with a neighbor, read a stack of piled-up journal articles, or do a crossword puzzle. Whichever of these activities helps distract you from Twitter is most closely addressing the need you are trying to meet with a social media fix. The winning activity is the best candidate for a new routine that can be sandwiched between the cue and the reward, accoding to Duhigg.
Before you leap into habit change, Bailey recommends taking your time in the pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation stages. Think though what you need to do differently. You may discover that a smaller change is best. Bailey says he remembers a woman who was dying to find a job to another company, but when she started to explore her motivations, she realized she was simply bored with her role. If she took a similar job with a different employer, she would likely be just as dissatisfied. Instead, that woman made a lateral move and found greater job satisfaction without losing tenure or making a disruptive change of employer.
You need to arouse your emotions and connect to the strongest motivation you have to change. Perhaps a visual reminder in your office wall will help you stick to your goal. Find a way to believe that you can change.
For personal change, it's about understanding the problem and understanding the emotions around it. If peopl feel the problem strongly enough, they'll do anything to solve it, says Bailey.
