I read a great book recently.
‘Switch’ by Chip and Dan Heath.
About motivation it is.
Ah, motivation, that oft sort, but rarely found creature.
An elusive little bugger sometimes, isn’t he?
In the book they make a great analogy about the situations we face and how we process and deal with them.
The elephant, the rider and the path.
The path is the environment around you – what you encounter on a daily basis.
The rider is your more conscious brain.
The elephant your more unconscious, primal, animalistic brain.
The bit that often ‘gets you in trouble’ by getting you do things you may later regret.
It’s a great way to help understand the way our minds work and why we make the choices that we do.
I’m not going to cover the whole book.
Just a few of the best ideas I got from it.
One at a time over the next few days.
First one:
“To get the elephant to climb a mountain, lead it up a small hill first.”
Our brains don’t like massive change.
Whether it be lose 5 stone……..
Pay off 10 grand of debt…….
Get a degree……..
Etc.
The amount of stuff to do to get these things can seem ‘too much’.
And we can get discouraged.
It’s like an elephant at the bottom of a mountain.
Looking it up and down and remaining stubbornly still.
Get that elephant to warm up a bit by going up a small hill?
Then you could maybe get him to try the next bit…..
And, over time, he finds himself at the summit.
There’s two things at play here.
Breaking the overall goal down into smaller, more quickly achievable steps.
And also the psychological boost from feeling progress is being made.
In a study where people were told they needed to get ten stamps on a car wash card to get a free wash, 18% completed it.
When given a card with the first two stamps added and told they needed twelve, 34% completed it.
Despite it being exactly the same amount of work.
It’s the same with your health / weight loss / fitness journey.
Break it down into relatively quick to achieve goals.
Lose the first couple of pounds.
Turn up to the first session.
Do one healthy food shop.
Have one night off the booze.
Go to bed early once.
Book in for the find our more meeting 😉 –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
Pretty much zero reason they can’t be done, no?
And, like that elephant going up the first, little hill, we’re more likely to go on to conquer the mountain.
Much love,
Jon ‘Hannibal’ Hall and Matt ‘Barbar’ Nicholson
P.S. A point each for those middle name 🙂
P.P.S. No one got Thursday’s middle names – Palladium has an atomic number of 46. Obs! 😉
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Or check out our monthly find-out-more meeting if you want to learn more about our free ’20lbs weight loss in 8 weeks’ and ‘Beach Body’ challenges –>Â myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
