We all like to think that the New Year will bring the opportunity for change. In reality, change is quite hard. The irony is that it is not hard for the reasons people think.
As a business consultant, fitness nut and overall optimist, I always want to believe the best of people. I have learned that to get the best of your efforts you have to deal with both the Elephant and the Rider.
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Wait, what are the Elephant and Rider? The Elephant is the subconscious mind and the Rider is the conscious framework (rational conscious mind) we place over our desires, motivations and fears.
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In the NY Times bestseller, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath, they offer three basic steps to produce change, and they are effective.
1. Direct the Rider: Be sure you provide crystal clear clarity for the rational mind to understand. For example, if you want people to drink 1% milk rather than whole, make sure all your messaging says that and only that.
2. Motivate the Elephant: When you get people emotionally engaged, you use the subconscious mind to work with your proposed change. Use positive, aligned motivators to encouraged the change in behavior. This works especially well with children and entrepreneurs.
3. Shape the Path: The Rider and the Elephant work best when they want to go the same direction. Change environmental conditions to improve the chance of a change’s success. Take portion size as a way to control total calorie intake. An easy way to do that is to serve meals on smaller plates or containers. The reverse is also true. Want to drink more water? Make it easily accessible at all times and make the container size large!
So for your resolutions or change, try these steps and map out a path to success. Here at Beach Fitness, we have personal trainers who do this for you. That makes you accountable for your results and also uses the three steps above to maximize your results. Good luck!
Seth Eaker is a partner of Beach Fitness and has an MBA.
