1.6.4: Turning What You Want to Do into Habits

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From the course by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Foundations of Professional Identity

37 ratings

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Foundations of Professional Identity

37 ratings

Course 1 of 4 in the Specialization Professional IQ: Preventing and Solving Problems at Work

Many find themselves frustrated in their careers by lack of preparation for dealing with predictable dilemmas that regularly arise in the world of work. Two in five professionals fired in their jobs after college are terminated for lying, or misuse of technology. Easy to avoid! Or is it? What if you find you have to compromise your values to keep your job? What if they ask you to lie or cheat, even though you know if you are found out you will be fired? What if you find out the company is breaking the law? Successful people know about and have the skills taught in this specialization. You should, too. Those who wish to make a difference, build positive reputations, become leaders, and advance in their careers must cultivate professional success skills, along with their specific job skills. The central themes of this course – knowing yourself and your values, recognizing and meeting ethical challenges, using an analytical decision-making framework, identifying potential pitfalls, and developing tools to use in the moment – are essential soft skills for succeeding at work. In short, an ethical framework is necessary, and not just nice; smart ethics, as we define them, are integral to success.

From the lesson

Week 1: Introduction and Who Are You?

Find out how the course will run and how we’ll use 2-Minute Challenges and expert commentary to give you a 3-D understanding of the material in this course. Establish and clarify your values and learn how they underpin your career.

1.6.1: Gotta Habit1:48

1.6.2: 2MC – Grandma's Sweater1:25

1.6.3: Habits - Act Out Your Values Even If You Are Under Pressure3:50

1.6.4: Turning What You Want to Do into Habits3:21

1.6.5: Habits Reflect Values – Experts Comment7:22

Meet the Instructors

C. K. Gunsalus
Director of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE), Professor Emerita of Business, and Research Professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory

[MUSIC]

So if you want to create or change a habit,

there are seven useful steps to think about.

1, have a specific and achievable goal.

Let's say that my goal is, arrive at every meeting five minutes before it starts, or

make all my deadlines, or express gratitude.

What's the goal and can it be very specific and is it actionable?

2, Think through the benefits to your goals.

Get in your head what the goal is and how it benefits you.

It helps me to be on time because it helps me be a better participant in the meeting.

It's not disruptive to the meeting, and

it doesn't telegraph that I disrespect the others.

So figure out what the benefit to you is.

3, figure out what the critical difficulties are.

In my case, being on time is I always think I can just get one more thing done

because I'm so task oriented.

So the difficulty, the obstacle for

me, is not calculating well how long one more thing will take.

And weighing the gratification of getting it done

against the gratification of being on time.

4, Make commitments.

Write it down.

Our brain processes things we write down through different neural pathways than

when we just think it.

Writing it down makes a commitment.

An even bigger commitment is telling somebody.

I am going to try to be five minutes early to every meeting this week.

Then I've created some built in accountability.

5, Figure out what my commitment opportunities are.

What if I wrote on my blackboard in my office or my whiteboard in my office,

I'm going to be five minutes early to every meeting this week.

Or told everybody at the meeting, sent an email, please hold me accountable.

I'm trying to be five minutes early to everything so I stop coming late.

And 6, Imagine what the obstacles are.

Well, the obstacle is I get a piece of email right as I'm getting ready to leave

and I think, I can answer this quickly and somebody else can keep working.

Maybe I need to close my email ten minutes before the meeting starts, so

I don't have that enticement.

And then say to myself, I will change my conduct by x.

Building a new habit in adults takes anywhere from two to eight months

depending on how clear we are on what it is,

that we have actionable goals, that we track them.

So, for example, at the end of the week, I need to go back and

say I went to 14 meetings and I was early for 12 of them and late for 2.

And keep track of it, because metrics are part of what really make a difference in

whether you can change a habit.

Creating a habit, or overcoming a negative habit, there's no easy way.

It takes hard work.

It takes being conscientious.

And it takes really wanting to do it.

[MUSIC]

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