We mentioned yesterday about the whole Elephant, Rider and Path thing.
A way of viewing ourselves and the things that affect our choices and behaviours.
If you’re trying to lead an elephant up the mountain, it makes more sense that a gently sloping, smooth path would be the easiest way to get him up.
Rather than steep, rocky outcrops covered in slippy plant life.
Totes obvs, yeah?
## The not totally obvious way that young people say ‘totally obvious’ apparently ##
People often underestimate how much their environment influences their choices.
In one study, students were asked to rate their cohorts as either ‘saints’ or ‘jerks’.
Both groups then received one of two letters asking them to donate food for a charity at a certain location on campus.
The basic letter with just the details on got 8% of the saints and none of the jerks donating.
A same letter but with a suggestion of what to bring and a map of the location got 25% of the jerks to donate – three times more than the basic letter got from the saints.
Making the whole process easier made a huge difference to uptake.
Again, obvious, I know.
But it’s all to easier to make the whole weight loss / health / fitness process more complicated than it has to be.
With a corresponding drop in success.
Online food shopping, batch cooking, planning ahead of meals and workouts, minimising caffeine later in the day, having water bottles at hand, having back up healthy food in the freezer, etc, etc.
All relatively easy ways to smooth that path.
By not doing them we’re trying to force that elephant up the challenging slope.
We might get a distance.
Using sheer willpower.
Till it runs out
But that easier path will always take us further 🙂
## Check myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting if you like the idea of an approach that’s more about working smarter than just harder ##
Much love,
Jon ‘I can actually draw a brilliant picture of a Hippo’s face – get me to show you next time I see you’ Hall and Matt ‘Elephantastic’ Nicholson
P.S. Yesterday’s middle names – Hannibal rode some elephant over the Alps (you can tell why History was the only GCSE I didn’t get an A in) and Barbar was a cartoon elephant, originally from some French books.
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