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Merce Cardus

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How To Overcome Obstacles As You Fight For Change

in Entrepreneurship & Business on 18/05/15

Photo Credit: markomni via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: markomni via Compfight cc

In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, the brothers Chip and Dan Heath present three strategies on how to change things:

1. You have to direct the Rider (The conscious mind). Relying on your conscious mind to self-supervise change simply doesn’t work. Con­scious atten­tion is a pre­cious resource that is quickly exhausted when used to over­come the emo­tional desires of our heart.

→Study the bright spots and replicate.

2. You have to motivate the Elephant (The heart). We’re fun­da­men­tally schiz­o­phrenic about change; our hearts and minds often dis­agree.

→Use emotional levers.

3. You have to shape the Path (The environment). Envi­ron­men­tal cues often have a pro­found effect on our behav­ior and our abil­ity to change — shock­ingly so.  In fact, more so than most of us would ever guess.

→Make change easy.

Here are some examples of the common problems that people encounter as they fight for change with some advice.

Problem: I’ll change tomorrow. Advice:

  1. Shrink the change so you can start today.
  2. If you can’t start today, set an action trigger for tomorrow.
  3. Make yourself accountable to someone. Let your colleagues or loved ones know what you’re trying to change, so their peer pressure will help you.

Problem: I know what I should be doing, but I’m not doing it. Advice:

  1. Knowing isn’t enough. You’ve got an Elephant problem.
  2. Think of the 5-Minute Room Rescue. Starting small can help you overcome dread. What is the most trivial thing that you can do–right at this moment–that would represent a baby step toward the goal?
  3. Look for Path Solutions. How can you tweak your environment so that you’re forced to change?
  4. Behavior is contagious. Get someone else involved with you so that you can reinforce each other.

Problem: It’s just too much. Advice:

  1. Shrink the change until it’s not too much. Don’t give the Elephant an excuse to give up.
  2. Start developing the growth mindset. Progress doesn’t always come easily–achieving success requires some failures along the way. Don’t beat yourself up when those failures occur.

Complement Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard with One small step can change your life.

 

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