Fresh Start Monday #67: Change environment, change habits
There’s just one way to radically change your behavior: radically change your environment.
—Dr. B.J. Fogg, Director of Stanford Persuasive Lab
Some common myths that are shared by many of my clients:
I have an intention, and therefore I will change my habits.
I need to get motivated to change X.
I need a good incentive to start doing X.
Don't get me wrong, all of these things help at the beginning, but too many people rely on spurts of motivation and willpower. However, they're limited and temporary.
Even with the best intentions, bad habits are like a stubborn sticker.
You see the sticker. It's been there for years. You don't want it there anymore.
You start peeling it off. But that sticker has almost become a part of that surface. Even with lots of effort, it won't come off easily.
Over time, your habits become indistinguishable from who you are. To change them, internalize this rule:
My habits won't change without changing my environment.
Here's a powerful and unintended recent example from my life:
I've been living in the same house with the same roommate, Brianna, since last October. In one room, Brianna has a home office/gym space. Since living here, I haven't done a single workout in that room.
I haven't belonged to a gym since living here. I trail run a lot and don't feel I need to add more movement or exercise to my weekly routine.
Recently, she reorganized it. She put down these big black foam mats in one corner of the room that separated the gym from the office. It suddenly looked like a dedicated workout area. She bought heavier dumbbells.
Since that change two weeks ago, I've done five upper-body strength workouts without any motivation or intention to do so.
Your environment will change your habits whether you want it to or not.
Journal prompt: Have any changes in your environment over the past six months led to unintended changes to your habits? Either for the better or for the worse?
For this week:
Pick one habit that you want to change.
Outline the environment needed for the habit to thrive.
Make one subtle environmental change this week to test what influence it has.
For some of you, the change in the gym space may not have been enough to influence behavior change. Exercise is usually an easy one for me. Last week, when I talked about working on long-term and important goals, I needed a much more drastic change in my environment.
Without environmental change, your habits will remain unchanged.
Another example is that I noticed I don’t read as much as I used to. I now read first thing in the morning. I love coffee and feeling cozy, and that environment is something I look forward to each morning. Including the books I read below is a form of accountability too!
If you look in the rearview mirror and see a wasteland of habits you failed to stick to, focus on the environment first.
Currently reading: Dopamine Detox: A Short Guide to Remove Distractions and Get Your Brain to Do Hard Things
Finished reading: