Psychology hacks to achieve your goals
By 2025 50% of the WORLD will be overweight or obese. Already 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. Every year millions of people make new years resolutions to lose weight and get fitter and most of them fail. 90% of resolutions are broken by February. WHY? Is it lack of willpower? Why do so many people fail?
Willpower is finite. We all have different amount, but it is not in unlimited supply. Think about it this way. When you wake up in the morning, you have a full cup of willpower. Every time you have to tap into that willpower to do something you don’t want to do, you use a little bit of that up. So think about a typical day for someone struggling with their goals. Maybe they stayed up too late bingeing on Netflix and they are super groggy in the morning. It takes 25% of their willpower to drag themselves out of bed. That person then takes a look at their gym clothes they laid out the night before and their cozy, warm looking bed. It takes 30% of their willpower to put the gym clothes on instead if crawling back to bed. While drinking an enormous coffee, they stare at their car keys, struggling with the decision to actually drive to the gym. That takes another 10% willpower to pick up the keys and get into the car. On the way home from the gym, they hear their stomach growling and as they pass the Chick Filet, they think of how delicious a chicken biscuit and hash browns would be, and sure maybe one of those delicious cinimini buns, and who could have breakfast without orange juice? But they had made a plan to drink a protein shake for breakfast as a part of their healthy nutrition plan. It takes the rest of their willpower to keep themselves from pulling right into that fast food drive through. By 900am their willpower is completely depleted. The rest of the day is set up for failure. The next temptation will meet with no resistance. When they get to work and someone offers them a delicious donut from that amazing donut place down the road, cave in commences, plan is out the window. Willpower is a finite resource that gets chipped away at all day long by our internal conflictions and our environmental challenges.
“I want to lose weight, but I also want to eat the cookie”
“I want to work out, but I never schedule time to do my workout”.
Here are 4 things that chip away at willpower:
1. You have competing wants, so you are internally conflicted.
2. Your “why” for your goals is not strong enough.
3. You are not invested in or accountable for your goals.
4. Your environment opposes your goals.
The key is to resolve the above issues, and you will rarely need to rely on willpower to help keep you in line.
ENVIRONMENT: Your environment determines your behavior. You are an average of the environments you spend time in. Look at this like an alcoholic would. If you are an alcoholic, why would you continue to go to a bar every night or spend all your time with friends who drink? It’s the same thing with health goals. If you know you are trying to improve your health, why would you continue to spend your time in places that don’t support health? This one is for you people who continue to eat fast food even though you are trying to get healthy. Even though you are choosing the bun-less option, not getting the milkshake, and getting the grilled chicken and side salad instead of fried chicken and fries, you are still going to environments that don’t support health (fast food) and all you are doing is tempting yourself and sucking down your willpower every time you visit those places.
SHIFT IN PSYCHOLOGY (INTERNAL): To become a “healthy person” you must “act like” a healthy person and internalize “I AM A HEALTHY PERSON”. There is a difference between saying “I am trying to eat healthier” compared to saying “I am a healthy eater”. If you view yourself as already achieving health, then your behaviors must match that of a healthy person. When you say I am “trying to” that implies that there is plenty of room for failure. A healthy person just doesn’t make certain choices, period. A person “trying to be healthy” may make both good and bad choices. Change your mindset to one of a person who is already healthy, so there is no room for error.
The bottom line is that people who fail at their goals are constantly reacting to the environment and making adjustments to their personalities and behaviors to react to the environment. People who achieve their goals are doggedly steadfast and change their environments or avoid the environments that do not support their goals.
Here are some tips to create a steadfast personality to achieve your goals:
Create Non-negotiables: These are terms that are NEVER broken. You can add one exception term, but be specific on the exception.
“I don’t eat fast food.”
“I don’t eat fast food on the weekdays.”
“I don’t eat fast food except for Sunday.”
Make big goals attainable in small steps
EXAMPLE: Big Goal: I want to lose 30 pounds
Small goals to get to that big goal?
Structure your environment around those goals.
To improve our chances of achieving a goal is to do these 4 things:
1. INVEST UPFRONT
2. MAKING IT PUBLIC
3. SETTING A TIMELINE
4. INSTALLING SEVERAL FORMS OF FEEDBACK, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND REMOVING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT THAT OPPOSES YOUR COMMITMENT
Yes, these seem extreme, but you have to commit to this process 100% or else you are leaving room for failure. You can work with CPT Lincoln who is an Eating Psychology expert to help you get on track to achieve these goals and to make these behavioral changes in your life to set you up for success. Sign up for the 90-day Battle Buddy Program, invest in your success, and let’s do this!