Following Through

This blog has revolved around the understanding that habits can be a powerful force of change in our lives.  In previous posts I explained four various motivation styles.  You will remember that these fall within categories Gretchen Rubin developed: Upholders (those motivated best by either external or internal pressures; Obligors (those who are motivated best by external pressures); Questioners (those motivated best by internal pressure) and Rebels (who struggle to be motivated by either external or internal pressures).  Our personal motivation tendencies are critical to understand how we can encourage ourselves to actually follow thru with our expectations.  To achieve self-transformation we should refer to previous posts that examine motivation styles.  Individual differences matter, such as a person’s values and temperament when we develop the habits we want to benefit from.

In a future post, I might discuss how a person determines what habits they would like to adopt.  I have chosen to skip over this research because most people eagerly recognize good habits they want to adopt.  So let’s talk about follow-thru.  How can we make our goals into habits?  We are going to talk about scheduling and accountability.

Scheduling is an important part of habit formation because it sets us up for success.  Setting aside time and space to actually preforming a habit is crucial.  Most of the time, it best to set a specific, regular time that a recurring activity is performed.  If we repeat an activity in a consistent and predictable way, we build our habits are built faster and class or work-we just go.  If we take the hesitancy out of our decision making process, we will complete the goal.  If we have to decide whether to work out or not, we are likely going to develop reasons why we can skip the gym.  So often we wait for the “right time” to do a task, like tomorrow, next week or New Year’s.  We often overestimate our energy our commitment tomorrow, thereby losing out on our best effort today. 

As I previously discussed, a habit is useful because it becomes an automatic response instead of a decision to ponder.  Yet, every goal we have cannot necessarily become a regular habit.  Gretchen Rubin, habit expert developed the idea of the unfixed habit and fixed habits.  An unfixed habit is not automatic, entails adjustment and decision making while a fixed habit is more automatic and requires less decision making power.  For instance, I have to decide where I am going to study on a daily basis, in my living room, in my bedroom, at a coffee shop, my department’s student office, the campus library, the public library, etc.  The danger of decision making is that we can spend irrelevant time deciding where to go or what to do and we get lost in the consideration process.  When we take the decision making process out of a goal, we don’t have to make painstaking and time wasting decisions.  Do you ever find yourself avoiding work by working?  For instance, when I don’t feel like grading, working on my thesis or doing school work, I will clean the house or exercise.  I am working on something productive, but I am avoiding what I should be doing and I am engaging in procrastination.  Scheduling, literally scheduling our entire day can increase productivity dramatically.  I have known several working mothers in my life who schedule anything and everything.  I have known people to schedule a wide array of activities, including and not limited to, leisure time, sex and even designated time to worry.   I’m not sure I advocate scheduled time to make love to your partner because I think life deserves some mystery, but there is some great wisdom to be gained from this kind of thinking.  Scheduling a time to worry allows us to experience emotional frustration for only a limited time period, instead of being plagued by worry all the time.  I have discussed scheduling issues previously when I suggested that you attach a new habit like taking items to the recycling center, to an existing, scheduled errand.  If you go to the grocery store once a week on Saturday mornings, allow yourself an extra 20 minutes and do both.  Some new habits have to be developed and reinforced every time it occurs, like turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth or in between rinsing dishes.

It takes around sixty-six days of consistent behavior to create a habit- contrary to the popular notion that is takes thirty days.  Keep in mind that some people develop habits with more ease than others.  People with an Upholder motivation tendency generally have an easier time developing positive habits that lead to self-transformation, while those with a Rebel motivation style will likely struggle more than others.  Our personal motivation styles determine what we feel accountable for and whether internal or external pressures best motivates us matters tremendously for goal attainment.  Even trying to embrace a habit itself can be more critical than even performing the activity.  We want to be disciplined, productive individuals when it is time to be productive and leisurely, relaxed individuals when we get a break.

Accountability matters a great deal when creating a habit.  For instance, so many times I felt unmotivated to send my daily permit application for the John Muir Trail (JMT), particularly after being rejected so many times.  But because my husband wants to hike the JMT as much as I do, I kept applying.  I love my husband and couldn’t let him down because I didn’t send the daily permit application. Similarly, I have done my best to collect as many recyclable materials that I can from my work.  I can’t not collect all the aluminum beer cans because I don’t feel like it.  Colleagues at work know that I recycle all the aluminum cans so I can’t be caught acting lazy.  Likewise, I promised myself that I would exercise as many times I could a week, but no less than 4 times.  If I don’t uphold this goal, I feel like I’ve failed- a feeling I try to avoid.  Your personal motivation tendency matters a lot in this process, but generally speaking, being accountable to anyone improves our behavior.  We often behave better when we are on camera.  We also do things we wouldn’t normally do when we are not monitored by others.  Research says that often we need a hired personal trainer to make it to the gym as opposed to a friend we promised to work out with.  Tell a friend or a family member that you are going to recycle your household items weekly.  Offer to hold them to a commitment if they do the same for you.

I advocate that habit formation can change our lives in a multitude of ways.  I was inspired to write about a blog about habit formation because I want us to realize that we can make all kinds of changes for ourselves and for the environment.  There are many simple choices that we can make that are not time intensive and reduce household waste.  Laura Nada is an anthropologist and author who discusses her experience working with various energy specialists.  Nadar describes her frustration that their brain storming sessions were restrictive and directive.  Many simple energy saving techniques are not utilized and not discussed, like solar energy for instance.  Nadar worked in a multi-disciplinary committee that developed growth models for soft energy solutions.  Nadar and fellow committee members drew up plans to save a lot of energy simply by cutting out waste and inefficiency.  Consumers would notice no changes to their unlimited and on demand energy services and products, without the unnecessary excess.  I want us to adopt this model in our own lives.  If we use a strategies of scheduling and depend on accountability when we need it, we can minimize our household waste.  We must realize that we have to choose to make the time.  We can easily fit trips to the recycling center into our lives.  Too often we don’t rise to the occasion until we are personally impacted.  The documentary Gas Land is a great example.  The film explains the lethal health consequences and the severe environmental degradation of natural gas refinery sites.  These problems seem so far away to us don’t they?  But they’re not- we all live in one system.  Our individualistic lifestyles have pushed us too far from what matters most- each other’s well-being.  In future posts, I am going to discuss how we can develop habits to become more communal and collectively minded people that work towards a better future for ourselves and our planet.