Demi: [00:00:00] Okay, so I wanna get into prepping my meals every day, but I wanna do it for the rest of my life. So I just, I just do it right.
Oh, what now?
Simon: So on a very basic level, new behaviours just need to be repeated and repeated and repeated until they become habitual. However, in reality, it’s a lot harder than that. And so what we need to do is follow these simple steps.
Demi: Okay, let’s learn the steps.
Simon: Okay. Have your notepad and pen ready because these are the four steps of behaviour change.
Okay? Okay. Let’s calm down because now class is in session. Step one is behaviour testing. You need to decide what you are gonna do and when. For instance, I’m going to go to the gym on Wednesday after work. Then you need to try running the behaviour. And when you don’t do the behaviour, you wanna make some notes as [00:01:00] to why.
After this, you want to reflect regularly on any missed sessions and why they weren’t occurring, and the likelihood is you’re gonna start finding some kind of a pattern. So the next thing you need to do is you need to reflect on the behaviour and consider when you didn’t do it, why didn’t you do? When you are considering why you didn’t do it, you want to adjust the behavior to try and get over this issue in the future.
For instance, if you forget, put something in to remind yourself. Repeat this process until the behaviour is two things enjoyable and it fits into your life.
Demi: Okay. So I decide a behaviour. I make notes about why I didn’t do it, if I miss it. I reflect on those notes and make adjustments if I need to, and I keep doing that until my behavior fits into my life.
Woohoo.
Simon: Now we’re gonna go into step two, which is behaviour building. Behaviour building needs three things. The first of [00:02:00] which is external accountability. External accountability basically means that you have somebody outside of yourself that you are accountable to for that behaviour. Obviously a trainer or similar is great, but it could be a family member.
Or a friend. The only important part to this is that they are non-judgmental when you report to them if you did or did not do the behaviour. Next. In addition to this, you want to begin your personal accountability. Personal accountability is where you record your own behaviour. This could be in a diary where you record when you were successful and not.
Or anything similar. Finally, same as step one is you want to put a deeper analysis into place when required, reflect on when you didn’t do the behaviour, why and if needed, make any micro adjustments to keep you moving
forwards.
Demi: Great. So I can ask my friend or my parents, or even my partner to help me with
this.
Simon: Now heading into step three, which is habit.
So eventually, once you’ve done behaviour building for long enough, the behaviour will start to become easier. It’ll take less attention and less focus to get the behaviour done. This means that behaviour is now moving into the habitual stage. In the habitual stage. We want to step away from external accountability and we want to build up your personal accountability. The reason this is important is if a behaviour’s gonna last for the long term. You don’t want to be accountable to somebody else, rather you want to be doing that behaviour for yourself. Of course, we use personal accountability because it keeps us focused on whether the behaviour is happening or not.
Demi: Great, so now it’s
all up to me.
Simon: Finally, we’re gonna go to step four, which is an internalized behaviour. Making a behaviour a habit is a great place to be, but it’s not actually the end of making any behaviour a lifelong change. What we need to do instead is we need to internalize that behaviour. Effectively what that means is you do that behaviour because that’s just who you are.
So for instance, you go to the gym on a Wednesday, not because you’re trying to lose weight or get fit, but just because that’s who you are as a person. This is a great place to get a behaviour because habits, although good are still fallible and can still break apart, whereas internalized behaviours are part of your core.
And so therefore, only in very large dramatic shifts in your life are they likely to break down. At this stage, what we’re gonna do is drop personal accountability, i.e.. The tracking of your behaviour, and instead we’re gonna add in a trip wire. The trip wire could be something, for example, that you miss your workout on the Wednesday, two weeks in a row.
Then if this trip wire is ever triggered, that gives you the nudge to take a close look at this behaviour again. Is it maybe breaking down? Do you maybe need to bring in some personal accountability again to get it more solidified? Is there an adjustment in situation that means that the behaviour needs to be slightly changed?
Exactly. And well done. You are now. Well on your way to understanding how to take any behaviour you desire and make it a long-term part of your
life. Alright guys, so I hope that helps you. I’ve just asked if you could try it out, see how it works for you, let us know down in the comments how it went and we’ll see you next time.