I’ve mentioned my girlfriend Alex in some of these emails.
As well as been a great source of unintentional comedy material for my stand up the other week, she’s actually a very smart girl.
She works in corporate tax at Deloitte in Manchester and is doing well in her career.
But, like all of us, she makes mistakes.
She made a mild cock up at work the other day.
Nothing major, but she was displeased with herself.
I jokingly chided her with “Naughty AJ”.
To which she replied “No – stupid AJ”.
It got me thinking about how we often use words like good and bad.
And naughty.
And treats.
And how using them makes certain behaviours more likely.
I was only talking to one of our ninjas at Macc this morning.
About how she was struggling with her chocolate covered sugar bar consumption.
And, to start with, she was using phrases like “trying to be good”.
And “treating myself”.
And so on.
I think the human mind quite likes the idea of ‘being bad’ on occasion.
And we all like the idea of treating ourselves.
So what if we changed the way we viewed certain behaviours?
From our experience, this generally makes the decision an easier one.
So – next time you have a decision to make, spend 5 seconds changing in your head the way you see this decision.
No ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘naughty’, ‘treat’, etc.
Just try to think – “Will this take me closer or further away from the person I want to be?”
You might still make the same choice.
But try just reframing the way you think of it.
Remember – we don’t want you to have to use ‘will power’ to resist eating or doing certain things.
We want to support you on a journey of change so that you’re just not so bothered about them.
Remember – will power is a finite resource.
It runs out.
Changing the way you think gets easier too.
Over time it goes from making yourself think a certain way to just being the way you think.
New neural pathways and connections form.
New habits are created.
It’s a bit like brain washing yourself.
But in a good way.
Tomorrow, I’m going to cover one of the most common questions that people ask about what happens down at RISE – “Will I be the fattest / most unfit person there”.
And why that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if you were.
Much love,
Jon ‘Brain washer’ Hall and Matt ‘Cult leader’ Nicholson
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