In 2017, I will…. Make resolutions that stick
As I write this, it’s that lovely, tranquil time between Christmas and New Year, when the kids play outside with their new toys that are still a novelty, the fridges are no longer overflowing but still full enough not to worry about meals, and the house – let’s face it – looks like a bomb’s hit it… But there’s time still for those little moments of downtime to reflect on the year and – equally importantly – to plan for the year ahead.
“New Year’s Resolutions?!” I hear you cry…. “Not again! What was my Resolution last year?… I can’t even remember!” And for the willing cynics, that’s probably all the evidence required to demonstrate how ineffectual New Year’s Resolutions can be.
But could it be that the issue lies not in the resolution itself, but rather in how we build our resolve?
With time to spare in a quiet house, with the benefit of distance from the usual churn of work, I recognise that there are some things I need to do differently in the new year. There are some very ingrained habits I need to change – and only I can make this happen.
The key to changing the way we do things lies in how we formulate our intent.
Habits, from a neuroscience perspective, are neural pathways that offer the path of least resistance. Simple, easy; you don’t need to expend much effort to exercise a habit. But that means that breaking them – and indeed sometimes even recognising them – is all the more difficult. And any leader in a cultural change effort, be it a global transformation or a shift in personal priorities, needs to change their own habits. Change starts with us. We are kidding ourselves if we believe we want change and that others can be tasked to deliver it for us.
In neuroscience, a simple formula to support our recognition of habits lies in the simple steps of:
- Recognising the BEHAVIOUR we want to change.
- Identifying what the real underlying REWARD is that we are seeking – it’s worth exercising caution and a degree of self-awareness here! What we might like to think we’re seeking might not represent the real need we’re seeking to fulfil, so dig deep when thinking through what the underlying reward associated with the behaviour really is.
- Recognising the CUE that might act as a trigger for the behaviour – this might be location, time, emotional state, other people, or an immediate preceding action.
Charles Duhigg has some great YouTube materials on this.
Once you’ve recognised your habit and you understand a bit more about what it is that you want to change, then implementation intentions have been shown to have a dramatic effect in helping people to make changes. Check out some of Peter Gollwitzer’s work on this if you’d like more.
In essence, an implementation intention helps you to formalise your resolutions – New Year’s or otherwise – into a formula that captures the behaviour, the reward and the cue. It’s very simple:
In order to [achieve X reward]
In Y [cue] circumstances
I will do Z [new habit]
In other words, in forming these implementation intentions in this way, you are primed to recognise a situation when the old habit might be triggered, and you are also motivated by the potential reward that bringing the new behaviour into play might yield.
Here’s my implementation intention for 2017:
In order to stretch myself (This is the REWARD for me – I enjoy intellectual stimulation in my work)
When clients approach me and ask me to deliver a solution for them (Here’s the CUE – so often clients come asking for delivery of solutions rather than analysis of the issues)
I will be bold in asking the probing, challenging questions that will help them explore and confront the underlying issues in a different way (and here’s the BEHAVIOUR – this is what I will do differently in 2017)
The reward will be for both me and the client – I’m sure my work will be that much more effective as a result and they will be supported in finding new solutions to old problems.
… So, that’s my resolution for 2017. What’s yours?
By Vicky King
Recent Comments