3 steps to powerful personal improvement
You dream of getting better at providing frequent feedback to your team, or paying attention to your body language, or implementing that time management system you’ve heard so much good about.
You know what you need to do – you’ve read about it, been to trainings, got feedback from your mentors and coaches.
You’re working hard to implement the theory into practice, but somehow your efforts aren’t producing the results. You forget to send that reminder email, you slip back into the bad habit of not looking at the person you’re talking to, or abandon the fight with your bursting in-box tray.
It’s sooo frustrating!
Implementing personal change is hard. There are so many competing priorities, we are already flat-out busy these days. Isn’t there a smart shortcut to achieve it though?
Yep, there is. Psychologists and social scientists have been exploring secrets of successful behavioural change and have come up with a recipe.
Yes, really! And it’s easier than you think. It all boils down to a three-step framework.
(This framework is described in Chip and Dan Heath’s book: Switch, and is based on years of research and case studies. The approach works for individuals, organisations, or even whole societies.)
1. Have a crystal-clear goal in mind and map your journey
Make sure you know where you want to get. Having a SMART goal is not enough though. Start where you are at now. Map out your journey, marking your critical moves. Ask yourself: what’s my next step? Do I have what’s necessary to get there? Do I need to upskill, learn, get help from others? You will have to achieve certain steps before you can achieve other ones– be aware of the sequence.
Script your critical steps. If the biggest challenge to a better time management is saying ‘no’ to requests, plan how you’re going to learn to do it. Break it down into manageable chunks you can squeeze into your busy schedule.
2. Shape up your emotional motivation
Knowing intellectually what’s good for us, doesn’t mean we’re going to do it. Human beings need to feel the change is necessary and matters to them. This is a variation on good ‘ol what’s-in-it-for-me. The more the new behaviour matters to you, the more powerful the longing for your final destination, the better. Do you want to manage your workload more efficiently so you can get home earlier and spend quality time with your family? Or to have time for things that matter to your team and organisational goals? Do you want to feel that sense of achievement and pride of driving your team, your organisation, yourself to success?
For even more powerful motivation, feel the change is within your reach. Find areas where you’re already performing similar behaviours or using similar skills. The extend can be as small as being able to sometimes say no to requests from some people, or keeping your meeting notes well organised. It can be as big as ‘I’ve actually used to have a well organised filing system’. The point is to uncover that you have it done already to some extent; to have a proof of your abilities. It shrinks the journey, and makes it easier.
3. Make the new behaviour automatic
This is probably the most powerful of all techniques. Why? Because it doesn’t require strong willpower, or motivation, or inspiration. You’ll have to do some hard work upfront, but once you’ve set it up well, it will run on autopilot.
Make your new behaviour a habit (– something you do because you always (ever day, on Mondays, on odd days, etc.) do it.
So if you want to keep your office well organised, have a routine of filing your emails at the time you’re reading them, make the tidying up of your desk an end-of-day ritual, add a weekly review of your in-box tray and monthly checks on your filing system.
And the last but not least – the often-underestimated trick that can make or break it all: your environment. Keeping your files organised is hard if you don’t have a filing cabinet and a stack of ready-make labels. You can’t provide frequent feedback for your team, if you don’t interact with the regularly.
Think of what in your environment gets in the way of you performing the new behaviour and change it to make the new behaviour the default option. Get a filing cabinet, made labels and have it handy at all times. Let your environment force you to always chose your new behaviour.
Personal change and self-improvement are hard to implement, but they don’t have to be all blood, sweat and tears. You can make that journey easier and faster. Isn’t it worth investing a little time upfront?
This framework is great not only because it works – it’s also flexible. Of course, it’s best to have the all elements in place, but implementing just some of them can make a difference, too. Start with whichever step you like. Tweak a thing or two.
Do something.
Do it for yourself.
You will thank yourself later.
Joanna Jast is a blogger, author of Laser-Sharp Focus book and a smart shortcuts seeker. She helps people who need to adapt quickly to new environment accelerate their learning and personal change with science-backed strategies without fluff. Grab her latest tips on speeding up success at: http://www.theshapeshiftersclub.com/blog/
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