Copyright © Matthew Johnson 2002. All rights reserved.
Strategies to Maximize Personal Effectiveness in Behavior Change
Four Steps to Behavior Change
1. Identify and Specify Behavioral Goals and Objectives
2. Strategic Planning and Personal Contract
3. Develop a Support System for Your Goal
4. Program for Success and Maintenance
1. Identify and Specify Behavioral Goals and Objectives
Clearly defining and writing down your fitness related goals is proven to increase your likelihood of achievement. Your goals should be desirable, specific, measurable, and realistic.
Choose Realistically
Another typical reason health programs fail, is because people make
unrealistic and unattainable demands on themselves. Consequently,
people are almost always sure to fall short when they go to extremes. Therefore,
keep your goals simple, realistic and attainable.
Also, you must always be certain to focus on specific behaviors. For example, saying that you will lose 20 pounds is not a behavior. Loosing weight is a result of behaviors such as exercising and reducing your daily calorie intake. Rather than obsessing about your scale weight, you should focus on the daily behaviors that will lead to the desired outcomes.
Thus, people that fail to reach their goals usually don't define them, learn about them or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable.
2. Explore the Behavior and Formulate a Strategic Plan
Research also concludes that by designing a detailed plan you will dramatically increase your success rate. For example, a crew can not construct a building without a detailed plan. Why should you view your health program any differently?
Baseline
A baseline is a measurement of the existing behavior and noting
when and how often that behavior occurs before treatment. Examples
include, how often and when a person uses tobacco, or eats high calorie
foods, or displays outbursts of anger. The baseline measurement of the
behavior, will helps you set realistic goals and identify future improvement
levels.
Triggers
A trigger is simply anything that causes or increases the likelihood
of a behavior. Therefore, if we know when and what is motivating a behavior,
we can create future interventions by planning alternative coping mechanisms.
Learn by Looking About Your Past
If you have attempted to change your behavior in the past but have
not succeeded, what exactly went wrong? What will be different this
time? Therefore, when you previously tried to reach a goal, you should
have learned something about yourself and the behavior which can be applied
to your new attempt.
Plan Specifically for Stress Management
Two of the most frequently cited reasons for personal failure is inadequate
time management and/or increased levels of stress. Changing behavior
is hard enough without the additional difficulty of trying to balance out
work, interpersonal relationships, family, and everyday life situations.
Unfortunately, when things get stressful, people often relapse back to
their old unhealthy behavior's. Knowing this ahead of time, you must
plan and prepare strategies for such future events.
3. Develop a Support System for Your Resolution
Research concludes that the people who succeed at making lifestyle changes typically have exceptional support systems. Consequently, telling others about your goals and objective increases your accountability to the behavior. From the very start, your should begin by telling those around you about your fitness program, this way you will increase your likelihood of success by enlisting greater levels of support. This contract will not only increase the support of those around you but it will also makes your commitment public and help to convince both you and others that you are serious about this change.
As part of the strategy explained above, initiate ways to increase the involvement of others in your efforts. For example, you could always lure a friend into joining and committing to a behavior with you. Having someone to workout with or quit chewing tobacco can drastically boost your success rate. No matter if it a spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, roommate, co- worker, or even an acquaintance, being accountable to someone other than yourself will help to keep you on track.
4. The Program for Success and Maintenance
With any new venture or attempt it is imperative to have the right mental attitude. For instance, winners always have the mindset that their goals are possible and within reach. Not everyone has this positive outlook, but it can be improved through both positive self-talk and visualization. Thus, you must visualize yourself already achieving your new lifestyle.You must develop a mental image of who you want to become and then act as if you are that person. See yourself as a non-smoker, as a fit - healthy person, as an emotionally pleased human being.
Reward Yourself Frequently
Starting a exercise regimen can be physically and mentally draining,
with few immediate results. An effective coping method would be to link
an alternate activity that you find personally rewarding with your exercises.
Therefore, you should find something to look forward to that can be combined
or achieved with your exercise program. Choose something that makes you
feel intrinsically great about your exercise commitment and you will increase
you chances of success. Whether it is a deserving massage, hot tub, or
a satisfying healthy meal, your behavior needs reinforcement so you can
feel good about your effort.
Provide a Visual Record
Another way to increase your success and motivation is to keep a visual
record of your accomplishments. This can be done by simply writing
on a calendar or using a daily progress chart. Although, most people today
choose to track their achievements and setbacks by writing in a daily journal.
The journal works because it further holds you accountable to your daily
behaviors. Therefore, if you write about your efforts, then you are more
likely to follow through on your goals.