3 Tips to Rewire your Brain for Change
It takes more effort to think about and do something new than react to pure instinct or habit. The brain is also wired to seek rewards and avoid pain. Change is painful and perceived as an enemy. Until you repeat the task and transform it into a habit, your brain will keep fighting you.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t change. Humans not only survive but evolve because we constantly change, adapt and reinvent ourselves and our world.
Here are 3 tips on how you can make long-lasting changes and have your brain work for you instead of against you:
1- Believe that you will be better off
Nothing starts easy, whether it’s leaving a stressful job, ending a bad relationship, or revamping your workouts. Change is unknown and different from our beloved “zone of familiarity.” If you are bored to death by following the same workout for the last 10 years, don’t be scared to change it. Chances are, it’s probably not yielding results anyway. It might take you a few tries to get it right so keep telling yourself that what you are doing now is better than what you were doing. It will become the fuel that will help you push through the scary process of leaving the fitness routine you’ve been doing since middle school.
2- Make small changes
As if a change was bad enough, trying to change everything all at once is a sure recipe for failure. Do you have 20 pounds to lose? Focus on the first five. Create the new rituals and behaviors you will need to lose those five pounds. And guess what? The same rituals that will help you lose the first five, will be the same for the next 10, 15, and 20. So if having ice cream every night is your issue, commit to giving it up once a week. An average scoop of ice cream has 14 grams of sugar. After giving it up 4 times, you’ve just saved 56 grams of sugar! Not bad for a small change.
3- Go away
Studies have shown you increase your chances of sticking with a change when you start it on vacation. Do you want to start waking up earlier or quit smoking? Book yourself a vacation. Why does it work? Because the new environment creates an opportunity to form a new ritual without the triggers and rewards from back home. Now that’s a fun way to create new habits or change bad ones, right?
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À bientôt,
Laurent