BEHAVIOR CHANGE: A Sustainable Approach to New Years Resolution
The new year is rapidly approaching, and many hopeful people are excited to hit the ground running toward their goals after a relaxing holiday season.
Unfortunately, most people start the year with high motivation, set very ambitious goals, and burn out after 3-6 weeks because they do not understand one of the most powerful concepts of achieving goals: BEHAVIOR CHANGE.
Along with being a fitness coach, I also work as a Behavior Specialist working with individuals with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities.
Our main goal as Behavior Specialists is to assess undesired behaviors and try to implement plans to help replace the undesired behaviors with more adaptive behaviors through Functional/Applied Behavioral Analysis and consistent repetition. A lot of the time, I feel like I am being a Behavioral Specialist for my fitness clients as well, because when we have a goal, it requires us to make changes to our behaviors to achieve the desired result.
If you are ALIVE, you are BEHAVING. Your behaviors and actions are what create the reality around you. Your current state of health, fitness, relationships, financial health, and in some cases, even your mental/emotional and spiritual health are all areas that are affected by your routines, habits, and behaviors.
BEHAVIORS AND GOAL SETTING
When we set goals at any time, we are inherently saying that there is a change that we want to make to our current state. We have the desired result of the strength gains, fat loss, financial gains, promotions, or increased skill in something from where we currently are.
Our current behaviors create the results that we currently have, so if we want to achieve a goal of any kind, we must change our current behavior.
If we want to increase our income, we must apply for high paying jobs, learn valuable skills, increase productivity or offer to take more responsibilities in your current job to learn more skills that can apply to potential newer jobs or promotions.
If we want to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle, we have to change our eating habits, activity levels, go to the gym, start learning a martial art or new sport, or walk daily.
If we want to increase our numbers on particular lifts in the gym and get stronger, we must change our approach to our current program, increase intensity on the main lifts, be more consistent, eat higher protein.
If we want to have a less messy home, we must develop habits of cleaning as we go, getting more storage bins, reorganizing how your current layout is to allow more easier clean up and less clutter.
And there are many other examples! Every goal that we have requires some level of fundamental behavior change. If our behaviors don’t change, then we don’t get different results. Or as is commonly said:
NOTHING changes, if nothing CHANGES.
Our goals should be trackable and realistic. If you have a very ambitious goal, then it should be broken down and there should me more specific mini-goals to hit along the way.
I find myself having to manage people’s expectations a lot as both a Coach and a Behavior Specialist due to how ambitious their goals/desired outcomes are. But I love when people have ambitious goals as it shows that it is important to them. Ambitious goals are possible, but not by accident. It is important to manage your expectations. The more ambitious the goal, the longer more intense the process is going to be. Keep them attainable so you can build smaller wins along the way.
BEHAVIOR GOALS AND DAILY GOALS
When we set these goals, we often think BIG and forget that the smaller details matter. We get lost in the big and often vague vision of “I want to lose 20lbs” or “I want to run a marathon this year” and we often forget about the smaller more important steps along the way that get us to the goal.
The goals that we set are often vague, not well defined, and not planned out with specific daily tasks that we need to do to get us closer to the goals.
When we have Behavior Goals, or daily tasks we have to hit in order to make progress toward the bigger goal, the goal gets changed from “I want to read 12 books this year“ to “I will read at least 1 page per day.”
In a more Health and Fitness Context: “I want to lose 20lbs this year” to “I must hit my daily protein goal daily and hit 8000-10000 steps daily” and tracking the days you are doing so.
If you are being honest with yourself and hitting those two goals every single day, then you know for a fact that you are going to see results because there was a CHANGE IN YOUR DAILY BEHAVIOR.
From there, we continue to track the objective data. Remember, as Ramsey personality and Therapist Dr. John Delony says FACTS are your FRIENDS.
Are you hitting your daily steps?
Are you hitting your daily protein goal?
Was there any change on the scale in 4-6 weeks?
If Yes, then great! You are putting yourself in a Calorie Deficit. Make sure you are not starving yourself and you are including some weight training and physical exercise. Keep it steady and consider working with a professional who can help monitor you and get you into a maintenance phase after some time.
If No, then you are not in a Calorie Deficit and are 100% hitting the steps and protein, then you may need to look into a better exercise program or consider hiring a coach. Perhaps you were not actually hitting the daily goals. Perhaps we have to look specifically at the diet and assess your fiber and micronutrient intake. Maybe you were strength training and there was no Scale Weight change, but there was some increase of muscle tissue and decrease in fat/adipose tissue and using a waist measurement would be a more ideal metric to measure.
There are PLENTY of possibilities. This is where we need to put our Behavior Specialist hat on, tease out the details and work toward the necessary daily Behavior Goals.
Congratulations! You have just used principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to analyze your behavior changes and the objective outcomes of it.
Whenever you find yourself struggling with progress toward the bigger goal, the important question to ask is “Am I achieving my daily behavior goals?”
ENVIRONMENT, FRICTION & THE POWER OF SMALLER CHANGES
In the process of behavior change, we want our environments to be conducive to the goals that we have.
Our environment influences our behaviors on both a conscious and subconscious level. In the book “Atomic Habits,” James Clear gives discusses the idea of friction associated with certain habits and how our environment influences that.
Between our home and work offices and even the friends that we hang out with, our Environments can either make certain behaviors easier (reduce friction) or more difficult (increase friction). This can make or break a person’s ability to make and sustain positive changes.
Reduce Friction for Desired Behaviors:
As you can imagine, we want to make it as easy as possible for the good habits to form. We want as little friction as possible between us and the desired habit. For example, if you want to read more, make sure your book is easily accessible with a highlighter next to it, possibly next to your favorite comfy spot on the couch (We all have that one spot on the couch that we claim :)). If you stored your books in the cold basement in an old storage bin that we have to search through for the book, how often do you think you would read it?
Increase Friction for Undesired Behaviors:
On the flip side, if there are habits you want to break, we want to increase the friction associated with them.
One common thing that people struggle with when in a Calorie Deficit is the desire to grab sweet or salty snacks in between their meals or later at night when cravings arise.
There is nothing inherently wrong with snacking, but unhealthy snacks and late night eating are a huge reason why people end up not getting into a calorie deficit and struggle with weight loss.
One environmental modification you can make is putting all of your easy grab snacks on the highest shelf in a cabinet that makes you have to get a step stool out.
Could you imagine having to get a step stool out of the closet every time you wanted to grab a quick snack? It seems crazy at first, but creating friction between you and an undesired habit is just as important and effective as the environmental cues that promote the desired habits!
Consider Cues and Triggers
If you pay attention, all of our environments have things that can cue us into certain behaviors. This is the reason GRocery stores are designed to have some of the bright colored and inexpensive candies/snacks right at the Cashier’s area.
The environmental cues of “Cheap and Bright Colored snacks” serve as triggers that prompt us to buy extra things we did not need.
By strategically placing cues related to positive habits, people can create an environment that encourages desired behaviors and vice versa.
So What Should I do?
Let’s review -
We talked about goal setting and how our behaviors create the world around us and how every goal that we have requires some level of fundamental behavior change. If our behaviors don’t change, then we don’t get different results.
We talked about taking those larger goals and breaking them down into daily behaviors goals that will help build up into the larger goal for measurable progress.
And we talked about designing your environments to support that goal by managing your cues and triggers and make certain behaviors easier (reduce friction) or more difficult (increase friction).
So what do we do with this information?
Here are some action steps I want you to do on a sheet of paper that you can revisit:
Define your goal with a timeline: Is this goal attainable within this amount of time? Is it something that can be measured so you can know your progress? Why is this Important to you?
Define what behaviors are associated with that goal: What behaviors do you need to change? What are the desired behaviors? What does an Ideal Day look like where you make progress and enjoy the steps along the way?
Assess your environment: What Changes can you make to your environment to make it more conducive to the goal? Consider cues and Triggers? What habits need more friction and which ones need less?
EXAMPLE:
DEFINE GOAL: I want to read 12 books this year. It is a very attainable goal if I spread it out enough. I will keep a note in my phone of the different books I read and I will note a big takeaway I had from reading the book to make sure I am applying it.
ASSOCIATED BEHAVIORS: I would have to be reading an Average of 1 Book per month. (Very Attainable and not too ambitious) The length of the book doesn’t matter much as long as it is something related to Personal Development, Fitness/Health or Business. This means I should be reading a little bit every day. I will read at least 1 Page per day, knowing that if I read one page, I will likely stay and read more. (1 page = Low barrier for entry/small win.)
ASSESS YOUR ENVIRONMENT: Having the book in sight and in the open with a highlighter ready works best for me (Lower friction). My favorite place to sit is in my office chair so I will leave the book open on my desk and set a daily morning reminder on my phone that says “Did you read 1 page yet?” Whenever I do set at my office desk I will put my phone charging in my bedroom so I am not distracted (undesired-increase friction).
If you do all of these steps and continue to revisit the note that you made, I strongly believe that you can make the changes needed to get closer to your goal.
Behaviors can be modified and changed with effort and planning.
If your behaviors do not change or adjust at all, neither will your results.
Behavior analysis and change is the KEY to the results and outcomes that you want!
If you have made it this far, Thank you for checking out some of my writing! I was very excited about this one with the new year coming up and I hope you find it useful and have some takeaways!
Please email me ortatraining@gmail.com with your Goal Setting Sheet and with any questions I can clarify! I would love to hear about your progress!
If you are STRUGGLING with constantly being in and out of a fitness routine or Nutrition plan, you aren’t alone. The information is out there. We know what we need to do (for the most part). But still most people struggle and cannot keep it up for a long-period of time.
If this sounds familiar, let me help you create a long-term relationship with fitness with my Online Coaching or In-Person Coaching. Fill out a Contact Form and I will get right to you!
If you are local to the Lehigh Valley, PA area; Find me at Competitive Edge Power and Fitness! I run a group class there and 1:1 training sessions.
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