Now that you know the basics of Behaviorism and some of its clinical applications, I want to leave you with some additional tips for strengthening your behavior change. We've focused on the tools that you as an individual can use, or the tools that you can use when working with another person in the diet. However, as you heard in Dan Ariel's talk, one of the strongest and most consistent findings in behavior change is that the more we can change the environment, the better off we are. Now, this is often a challenge because we may have no control over our environment. For example, if I want to change my eating habits, but I am subject to the schools, cafeteria lunch every day. I can't really change or control what food is available or what temptations are there. Or perhaps I want myself or my neighbors to bike more and use cars less. But if the streets of my town have no bike lanes and the drivers or reckless, I can't do a lot to change those things in my environment. However, if we think on a smaller scale, we often do have some control over our hyper local environment. So think about how you might change your local environment to reduce friction, as Dan puts it. If your goal was to exercise more, you could perhaps sleep in your workout clothes. So when you wake up, you're just ready to go. You could put your running shoes by the door, so you don't have to search for them and find them in the morning. You could put your yoga mat in the way of your path to the shower. So you literally can't get to the shower without encountering the yoga mat. You could commute so that you go by the gym on the way home from work. So there are a myriad of ways you could set up your personal environment to make it simply easier to do the right thing. That is the thing that you want to be doing in your behavior change plan. I'd encourage you to reflect on this in the context of your behavior change goal. Is there something you could change in your local environment today, to reduce friction and make doing what you want, simply the path of least resistance? We can also think about changing our environments on a bigger scale. If changing the food in the cafeteria or getting more bike lanes is important to your goals. You could advocate organized or work politically to get some of those changes to happen in your community. It might take more time, but it's probably actions that are consistent with your values. Another approach is to re examine your motivations for change. [COUGH]. As Dan observed in his talk, having text messages come from kids improved parents savings substantially. While adults might not be great about thinking about their own futures or delaying gratification for themselves. They tend to be more motivated to do so when thinking about the next generation and particularly their own kids. Likely this is because it ties into important values and sources of meaning for them. Things like leaving your children in a better position, then you or providing for them when you're gone. Importantly in the experiment Dan described this motivation or value was regularly brought to mind by having savings. Text reminders come from the kids. So, for your own behavior change goal, think about what you are, motivation and values truly are. As we've seen, behavior change is a lot of work. So why is this important to you? What is the payoff? Why are you putting in this work? And then two how can you more regularly remind yourself of these values? So if it's related to your kids, maybe you can remind yourself by putting pictures of them near your exercise equipment. Or if you're working on changing your sleep patterns, so you can do better in school so you can get into a graduate program. For example, maybe you put that graduate school application under your alarm clock. Whatever will help you regularly connect with the real purpose and meaning behind your hard work. Another tip that didn't come up in the video, but that is supported by tons of research is to enlist social support. One form this can take is as an accountability buddy. Someone who shares the same goal as you and is willing to join you in approaching the new behavior. I'm sure you can think of examples in your own life of times where you were able to achieve something you thought impossible. Maybe passing an exam, running a five K or sticking with the diet, because you had a friend or a family member who was doing it along with you. Humans are very social creatures and we're quite motivated by each other and by not letting each other down. If you plan to go for a walk in the morning with a friend rather than by yourself, you're much more likely to get up and stick with the plan and go for the walk rather than standing the friend up. This is the principle behind behavior change, support groups like alcoholics, anonymous and weight watchers. The social and community element really helps support the change. So think now about your behaviour changed goal and whether there is anyone in your life who might like to join you for the ride. Even if you don't know someone who wants to work on the same behavior as you, you can get some of the same benefits by telling a supportive friend or family member about your goal and asking them to check in on you about it. This serves the dual purpose of giving you a cheerleader as well as someone to be accountable too. Another element of our social world related to our personal behavior, is that our behavior is very influenced by the people who surround us, in addition to the environment that surrounds us. So if you surround yourself with similar people at least similar in the particular health behavior you're working on, science suggests their habits may rub off on you. And then it will be easier to keep up your habits. This has been observed with diet, weight change, smoking behaviour and exercise among others. So foster those friendships or join the clubs or groups that include people doing the health behaviors that you are aiming for. And this will likely support you as well. Next, make sure you continue to give yourself opportunities to reflect on your goals, revisit them and adapt them. Sometimes our new behaviors don't fit anymore after a while or the original plan gets kind of stale and old. Think about the number of times you've started a new exercise routine just to get bored and drop it. Next time when you're sick of running or jumping rope or doing aerobics classes, instead of just letting that drop off, think about what you don't like and how you can intentionally freshen it up. Maybe train at the next level, take a new running route or join a running club. Also, when you do relapse from your behavior changes, don't forget the next time you start to learn from your past experiment. What worked, what didn't, whether if some of the things that are most motivating for you. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. So we can learn a lot from ourselves and what we've done in the past. Finally, keep the fundamentals in mind. In the end, we are all animals. When in doubt or when your plan isn't working, go back to looking at what your reinforces our, what are the punisher? How is your behavior fitting into your day? What are its antioxidants? What are its consequences? Chances are you'll learn something new that will help?
