Stop Using Willpower To Change Your Habits - Try This Instead
When I first start chatting with clients, I often hear something like: “I just can’t allow myself to have any sugar” or “I just need to do X.” These are statements relying solely on willpower and zero planning.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than 7% of Americans consistently engage in the top five health behaviors, like eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep. Does that mean we have a severe willpower shortage or does that mean we are relying on the wrong thing to help us be successful for healthy lifestyle pursuits?
The science shows that willpower isn’t as important as you might think when it comes to changing your behavior—and it can even sabotage your efforts.
Here are some of our tips to ditch willpower and start making lasting change:
Make it easier to be healthy and harder to be unhealthy. What do you want to be doing or eating? Set your environment up to support you. Do you need to delete meal delivery apps? Maybe it’s time to unfollow unhealthy social media accounts. Are there foods you should toss out of your cupboards? Do you need to buy groceries more often? If you go out to eat, would it be helpful to have a meal chosen ahead of time? Perhaps you would be more active if you had a second pair of workout shoes to keep in your car for work day strolls. If you want to drink more water, maybe it’s time to get a water bottle, or a larger one.
Set specific, realistic small goals (shrink the change). It’s great to determine what your long-term goals are as this is what you are working towards ultimately achieving, but don’t get caught up in them. Instead, focus on 1-2 things you are ready to change each week to help get you there. If your goal is a new bedtime 2 hours earlier than what you’re doing, set a goal to got to bed 15-30 minutes earlier for a few days, then add another 15-30 minutes when you achieve your first goal, progressing to 2 hours. If you want to workout 4 days per week, but are working out once, set a goal to workout twice in week at a time you can consistently make, at a time of day that jives with your energy levels and schedule it into your calendar. Bonus: schedule an extra day so you have a backup option. When you get good at that, add another day at a time.
Celebrate your successes and learn from your challenges. Did you have a rocking week? Awesome! How did you do it, what and how did things come together? How can you keep that momentum moving? Did you run into issues or roadblocks, okay… what happened and how did you respond? Did you do your best or would you do things differently? Knowing it might happen again, formulate a plan on how you plan on responding next time (instead of being defeated).
Tell your family or friends your goals or consider downloading a habit change app like Streaks, Productive, or Habitify. Then they can support you through your process.
We’re here to help if you need us!