If you’re someone who judges yourself and says things like, “I just don’t have any willpower”, or “I can’t seem to stick with anything for long enough to make it work” then this episode is for you.
There’s so much more to behaviour than meets the eye and it’s easy to think we’re at fault when can’t stick with behaviours until they become habit.
What few of us realise is that all of our habits developed in the context of our environments – how we were raised, what we were taught, how we learned to fit in and belong, how we learned to manage our emotions…all of it.
Not only that but our environments change how we feel about the behaviour in the moment of deciding whether or not to do it – choosing whether or not to have a piece of cake feels like a very different decision when you’re standing in a health food shop as opposed to an “all you can eat” dessert buffet.
When I’m working to help my clients change their behaviour so they feel happier and healthier, I teach them my B=SET behaviour change model and I touch on the model briefly in this episode.
B=SET
It stands for Behaviour = State + Environment + Time
State – How you’re thinking and feeling in that moment
Environment – Everything and everyone around you.
Time – Your history with that behaviour and where you’re focusing your attention (in the past, present or future)
Much more on this to come in later episodes!
Environment
This week I talk about how, if you want to live a healthier, happier life, you’re almost definitely going to have to “swim against the tide” of your environment.
This is exhausting and requires enormous willpower – a finite resource.
The key to behaviour change, therefore, lies is your ability to either disconnect from your environmental influences or shape them in your favour.
