5 Unexpected Ways to Make Lasting Change
How many times have you tried to make a change and it just doesn’t stick? It might stick for a while, but then you fall back into old habits.
| News Years Resolution Statistics | Data |
| Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions | 45% |
| Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution | 8% |
| Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year | 24% |
| People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions |
*Source: http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/
Your brain is designed to go back to old habits. Neural pathways form in the brain and get very ingrained, making change difficult.
So if you want to make lasting change, you have to use some brain-based strategies to create new neural pathways. That translates into new thoughts and beliefs, and ultimately into change and creation of new behaviors.
1. Do Less and Talk to Yourself More
Don’t get caught in the misconception that you have to DO more to reach your goals. Doing matters much less than thinking. Stop focusing so much on the action itself, and focus more on what you are saying to yourself in your mind.
How you talk to yourself before, during, and after the process of change is critical!
We often sabotage ourselves with negative thinking or limited beliefs about our ability to succeed at our goals. If you set a goal to walk 5 times a week and then your thoughts are about how many times you have failed in the past at walking five times a week, then you are setting yourself up to fail again.
Instead, catch yourself thinking those thoughts and then hit the pause button. Choose a new thought. One possible thought: “even though I’ve tried to walk more in the past, I’m going to give it my best shot now because it’s healthy for me, and I enjoy it and the exercise is a good stress reliever.”
Your new thought makes a new neural pathway – this is exactly what is needed to create change, or create a new habit. This is the whole basis of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
2. Act As If You Are Confident
To help your brain make the changes necessary to actually do something different or create a new habit, Act As If you are completely confident. Act As If it has already happened.
The “fake it ‘till you make it” mentality really works.
If you are confident and tell yourself you can do it, you likely will be able to do it. So even when you don’t feel particularly confident, Act As If you’re confident.
Act As If you know the change is already happening and you expect it to be manifest completely.
[pullquote]
“Whether you think you can,or think you can’t, you’re right!”
~ Henry Ford
Creator of the first Model T automobile in 1908
[/pullquote]
We often stop ourselves from the change we want by fear that we won’t succeed. This fear can be conscious or subconscious.
Confidence about your success is what will translate into real success.
So acting as if you are confident will turn into real confidence which will turn into real results/change.
3. The Imagination Experiment
• Exactly what would it be like if you reached your goal?
• What would it be like to be the person who walks 5 times a week?
• How would you feel? What would you be thinking?
• What small (or big) things would you be doing differently in your day-to-day life?
Write down all of your answers to these questions.
Now experiment, and start doing those things now. Start thinking those things now. Notice what happens and how you feel.
The key here is using your powerful imagination to line up your thoughts, feelings, actions and energy congruently in the direction of your goal.
4. See With Your Eyes Closed
The human brain cannot tell the difference between an experience that is happening in reality right now, and one that is vividly imagined.
Studies with Olympic athletes and NASA astronauts show that the same parts of the brain are firing when they are imagining their next race/mission, or when they are actually doing it. The muscles of athletes actually fire even when they are sitting down in a chair just vividly imagining.
Spend at least five minutes every single day visualizing yourself and your life after you have reached your goal. Make the visualization very vivid, with as many details as you can picture.
What can you vividly see, here, taste or smell in your visualization?
Enjoy the visualization feel the good feelings associated with your success. Try to let your mind and body feel what it will really feel like after you have attained your goal.
5. Love Yourself the Whole Way
Last but not least, be kind and self-nurturing as you focus on your goal. Change is usually difficult. The human brain is literally wired to maintain the same habits and to resist change. So give yourself credit for your desire and motivation to make a positive change for yourself.
Honor yourself when you have little successes toward your goal. And it’s just important to honor yourself when you encounter challenges on the way to your goal. Expect that to happen and be prepared to be gentle with yourself and remind yourself that it is all part of the process. Then just recommit yourself to your goal.
Do one nice thing for yourself each day as a way of loving yourself, and thanking yourself for working toward this positive change!