Ann C. Jorn, Ph.D. Copyright 2007
Self-discipline or the lack of it seems to be a general human concern. How many times have you thought to yourself that you need to exercise more but took months to actually start an exercise program? And how many times have you started an exercise plan and after a month or two dropped it? Starting a new behavior and turning it into a habit is not an easy thing to do. However, some lessons form the science of behavior modification can help. Here are some basic ideas behind behavior change and habit formation.
Habit – a behavior that endures over time
Behavior Goal – a goal for how often and when you want your new behavior to occur. Goals should be realistic and achievable. Setting unrealistic and unachievable goals tends to rob you of motivation for change and reduce the likelihood that the new behavior will become a habit.
Motivation For Change - this involves addressing the roadblocks for starting a new behavior.
Motivator – a thought, action or event that occurs before the behavior and increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur. Often a motivator involves both thinking something and doing something. For instance, in order to get up in the morning to go to work you may think to yourself that you need to set your alarm and, then, do an action like actually setting your alarm.
Reward – a thought, action, or natural event that occurs after the behavior which rewards or maintains the behavior and is important for developing a habit. Rewards tend to have both a thinking component and an action component. For instance, you may reward yourself verbally by saying to yourself after you exercise, ‘Good Job!” Then by doing something like have your breakfast or take a warm shower.
Starting a habit is the most sometimes the difficult part of habit formation. You may feel a drag on your motivation to change or have a feeling of inertia. If you think about this, you will see that it makes perfect sense that change is uncomfortable or difficult. If changing were easy, we would have a very hard time keeping any habit. Starting a habit begins by motivating yourself for the new behavior. You have to psyche yourself up for change – just as it says in the Nike commercials Just Do It! In fact, you can vigorously say to yourself ‘Just do it!,’ or, think of all the advantages of starting the new behavior. Another important way to improve your motivation for starting a new behavior is to reduce your feeling of discomfort by challenging the negative thought that it is just too hard or uncomfortable to change. Remember the more you focus on what’s uncomfortable the more uncomfortable you feel.
Once you charge through that initial discomfort of starting a new habit, you will find that the discomfort fades. The next, very important task is to increase your sense of comfort around the new behavior and keep that sense of comfort going so that you can maintain your new behavior. Now think of a new behavior important for pain management. Some example may be physical therapy exercises, relaxation exercises etc. Now set a goal for how often you want this behavior to occur and be realistic with this goal.
Short-Term Goal |
Long-Term Goal |
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What: eat more a day How often/much: 5 meals When: starting 3 days from now How Long: for one week
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What: improve my eating habits How often/much: daily When: in 3 months How Long: for 6 months |
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What: How often/much: When: How Long:
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What: How often/much: When: How Long: |
Now lets work on thinking of rewards and motivators for your new behavior goals. Remember they do not have to be complex things. For example:
My Motivators and Rewards
Motivators(Things I can say and do before) |
Short and Long-Term rewards(Things I can say and do after) |
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Do: read my book
Say: “I’m going to like this new way of eating”
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Short-term Reward for Short-term Goal- Do: have a cup of tea after I eat my meal Say: “Good, I am taking care of myself!” |
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Long-term Reward for Long-term Goal– Do: Go out to Cape Cod for the weekend Say: I did a great job changing my habits
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1. Develop a list of strong short-term motivators and rewards and a list of long-term rewards. (Never use food as a reward or other substances such as drugs and alcohol.)
2. For handy reference, keep a list of possible rewards and motivators on your
refrigerator
3. To start a habit, use motivators and rewards every time you do the behavior.
To keep a habit, change motivators and rewards or use them intermittently.
Do your new behavior at a specific time of day
A very important idea to understand about habit formation and continuance is the idea of weak and powerful motivators and rewards. As you may have guessed, weak motivators and rewards tend to reduce both habit development and maintenance, whereas, powerful ones tend to work in just the opposite direction. In addition, it is important to remember that even powerful rewards and motivators tend to weaken over time. Your first cue that your motivators and rewards may be weakening is that you have failed to do a behavior. For instance, you may notice that you chose not to exercise on Wednesday like you usually do and then fail to exercise again the next week or two weeks later. When your motivators or rewards are weakening – change them. Another very good way to ensure their strength is to initially use them every time you do the new behavior until it is a habit, then, use your motivators and rewards intermittently
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HEALTHY NEW HABITS PLAN
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