‘Chapter 12: How to Change Your Behaviours’

Rather than rely on willpower to get you through your new behavioural changes, plan for a sudden drop in motivation. If you set up your environment so that you must follow through, it makes achieving your goals much easier.

If you have ever tried working from home, for example, you would know just how difficult it can be at times to get motivated to work. When the ideas do not want to flow, it is easy to direct your attention towards everything but the work at hand. At times when my office seemed more like a beehive than a working environment, I have jumped in the car with my work, driven to a remote location and committed to myself that I would not go home until my work was done. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a very comfortable arrangement, the change in environment did help to get the work completed!

Similarly, if you have ever moved an alarm clock to the far side of your room or avoided environments that make you want to break your healthy diet, you have employed this strategy. So, what are some bad habits that you want to change, and how can you use your environment to help you succeed?

Take one risk each day, something you either believe you can’t do or that you have never done before. If you continually challenge yourself to break through your habits, you will find that you no longer place as many limits on your ability. Doing something different every day is a great way to create change in all areas of your life. With each risk you take, each time you move out of your comfort zone you expand your power and confidence levels. The more you stretch your comfort zone, the easier it becomes. For you to grow your comfort zone, you have to be willing to feel uncomfortable. Embrace the feeling, as it means you are making progress!

This phrase is widely used because it works! You can change your life simply by behaving as though the successes have already happened. If you pretend to have already achieved your goals, your positive behaviour will generate positive feelings, and those feelings then work backwards to further reinforce your positive behaviour.

The other way you can use the ‘fake it’ method is by visualising yourself following through on the behaviours you want to change. While it is not a substitute for action, it can help you to feel more confident. Run through the sequence of events in your mind as though everything will work perfectly.

For example, if you have to deliver a speech to a number of people and you feel anxious, imagine yourself delivering the presentation with confidence and receiving positive feedback afterwards. When you actually stand up to give the speech you will look and feel more confident.

I used to be quite shy about approaching strangers in crowded rooms. I admired those people who could walk in, find someone to talk to and start a conversation easily and seamlessly. Rather than resigning myself to the wall, I decided instead to pretend that I was confident and see what happened. A number of great conversations later, I knew there was nothing to worry about!

Finishing what you start is essential for you to feel good about setting and achieving goals. When you complete a task, the satisfaction you get for crossing it off the list of things to do is immense. Leaving it undone is stressful and results in procrastination and lower self-esteem.

Finishing something you start also gives you the surge of energy that you need to start the next item on your list.
Having too many projects on the go at one time becomes tiring and saps you of motivation.

Do you have any projects that are hanging over your head, begging to be completed, but you keep putting them off? Get stuck into one of them and finish it off now. Make sure you give yourself a pat on the back or a little reward when you are done. You will feel great for it!

Get started on a project even if you are not sure how you are going to do it yet. If something is worth doing well, it is worth doing poorly until you increase your competence and confidence. Successful people don’t always hit every target, but they hit many targets. They are not afraid to try something and see if it works. If you wait for the perfect moment, you just might miss it.

Ariana and Reno wanted to buy a house near the beach but the market had boomed and prices were more than they
could afford. Every weekend they drove around to look at the houses that were for sale but usually went home discouraged.

One weekend, when looking at a house they liked for the second time, the couple decided that it couldn’t hurt to make an offer. They knew their offer was well below the house’s value, and not surprisingly it was laughed at by the agent.

Ariana and Reno got the last laugh, however, as it turned out that the vendors were under severe financial pressure to sell. Ariana and Reno held firm on their price and were finally sold
the house.

It is always worth going for your dreams because you
just might hit the target!