When you decide to change behaviour, you might think you’re making a simple choice – to start or stop doing something.
Sadly, it’s not that simple – and that’s one of the reasons so few of us achieve the goals we set for ourselves.
There’s a complex soup of ‘stuff’ involved in behaviour change.
In my B=SET Behaviour Change Model™, I have identified 3 “headline” forces that impact behaviour – and nestled within these 3 headlines are dozens more forces…
B=SET Behaviour Change Model
B=SET: Behaviour = State + Environment + Time
STATE – How do you feel? How much energy do you have? What are you thinking? Etc.
ENVIRONMENT – What’s around you? Who is with you? Who shaped you? What happened to you? What cultural messages did you absorb?
TIME – How long have you been running the same behaviour patterns? Right now is your attention in the past, present or future?
These are just a few of the questions whose answers determine whether you’ll find it easy or difficult to make a particular behaviour change.
But, when you’re a woman of a certain age, questions like, “How do you feel?” and “How much energy to do you have?” take us even further into complexity.
In the world of personal development, there’s a popular saying, “Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.” Mindset is everything.
Except that it’s not – and thinking this way can make change even more challenging for a woman over 40.
I was in my thirties when I first decided to uplevel my life and really go for my big goals and dreams. It was hard but when I applied myself, I felt able to do big things. Yet, as I aged, it felt as though I was working against myself.
I got more stressed, more despondent and less motivated. I cried more, often forgot things and struggled with energy. I just couldn’t be bothered.
Finally, my mum said, “Why don’t you get your hormones checked?”
Perimenopause
That’s when the word perimenopause entered my vocabulary and when I learned that the habits I had relied on in the past weren’t going to be enough to keep me energised and motivated and that mindset and time management hacks weren’t going to cut it if I still wanted to be productive and keep moving towards my big goals.
Now, thanks to the work of Dr Libby Weaver, I understand that optimising my STATE for high performance means I have to understand and make use of the 3 pillars of health.
1. Biochemical – What are you hormones doing? What is happening in your brain and body? What happens when you get stressed? How easily do you get stressed?
2. Nutritional – What are you putting into your body and what is that doing to your biochemistry?
3. Emotional – How are you feeling? What are you saying to yourself? Etc.
My lifestyle choices in my teens, twenties and thirties have created a less than optimal biochemical profile. Reversing the effects and ensuring I can age gracefully, stay focused, have energy and be productive enough to achieve my huge, amazing dreams, means I have to be far more intentional about how I live and what choices I make.
If you are in the same boat, join me on Tuesday 24 January at 8pm GMT for my webinar: The Alchemy of Motivation and Productivity in Menopause and I’ll tell you everything you need to know right now to get your mojo and energy back on track.
