Firstly – our middle names were, of course, lyrics from ’21 seconds’ by So Solid Crew.

Bo!

Or whatever they used to say.

So, in case you missed it we asked you yesterday to decide which of the following methods you have or would use when attempting to change something about yourself:

1. Make a step-by-step plan.
2. Motivate myself by focusing on someone I admire for achieving so much (e.g. a celebrity role model or great leader).
3. Tell other people about my goals.
4. Think about the bad things that will happen if I don’t achieve my goal.
5. Think about the good things that will happen if I achieve my goal.
6. Try to suppress unhelpful thoughts (e.g. not thinking about eating unhealthy food or smoking).
7. Reward myself for making progress towards my goal.
8. Rely on willpower.
9. Record my progress (e.g. in a journal or on a chart).
10. Fantasize about how great my life will be when I achieve my goal.

Research shows that all the odd numbered answers significantly increase the chances of people achieving that change.

While the even number ones decrease the likelihood.

No joke!

Today we’ll cover why the even number ones don’t work.

Tomorrow why the odd ones do.

Which will, hopefully, either enable you to start using more effective methods to change.

Or validate the approaches you’ve taken so far.

Motivate myself by focusing on someone I admire for achieving so much (e.g. a celebrity role model or great leader)

We usually only see the best side of people like this.

We don’t see all the challenges and difficulties they face in the background.

The 99% of the time when they’re not in the public eye.

And when we face these challenges, we struggle.

We’re only equipped for the stuff we see.

Think about the bad things that will happen if I don’t achieve my goal

Sounds like it should work, but rarely does – nearly everyone that comes to us has been using the ‘stick’ approach, and it hasn’t worked for them.

Try to suppress unhelpful thoughts (e.g. not thinking about eating unhealthy food or smoking)

Trying not to think about something just means you’ll think about it more.

We encourage concentrating on the helpful thoughts and, over time, the less helpful ones will become less frequent.

And we recommend working on strategies to deal with the less helpful thoughts rather than trying to suppress them.

Rely on willpower

We’ve mentioned many times before that ‘willpower is a finite resource’.

It runs out.

If you’re ‘making yourself do something you don’t really want to’ there’s only so long you can keep that up for.

Focussing on the making what needs to be done something that your enjoy and want to do always works much better.

Fantasize about how great my life will be when I achieve my goal

Lose – lose.

You either don’t achieve it and feel bad.

Or you do and it’s never quite the same as your fantasy imagined.

Usually the former.

So, if you’ve been using some of these approaches, then, hopefully, this has persuaded you they’re not the best option (particularly if they haven’t been working for you).

Tomorrow we’ll cover the ones that science and research shows do work.

Much love,

Jon ‘Skillpower > Willpower’ Hall and Matt ‘That’s my goal’ Nicholson

Best ways to change Part 2 Macclesfield Personal Trainer weight loss gym