No matter how good your intentions are about starting a new healthy lifestyle you will at some point be faced with the desire to self-sabotage on those healthy habits. That’s because old habits die hard! For now your old habits are stronger than your motivation to make progress on your goals.
Take me for example. I love writing these articles, but if I don’t write first thing in the morning and try to do it in the evening instead, the desire to self-sabotage and do something else is VERY present! That’s because my old habits dictate that I relax and watch Netflix in the evening (an episode of Midnight Mass anyone?) My energy is also at it’s lowest by the end of the day which is why my mind and body go into wind down mode by 6pm. BUT sometimes it happens that I have to write in the evening. So what do I do when I am faced with this desire to self-sabotage? Read on and find out.
Well if you read my last article, then you know that I am someone who advocates for acknowledging that there will be times where you just “don’t feel like it”. But there is an extra step you can take. You can PLAN for failure. Planning for failure is not negative thinking, it’s planning for reality. It’s proactive thinking so that you don’t live reactively and unconsciously. Planning for failure actually leaves you feeling more prepared and in control in moments where you want to procrastinate or self-sabotage.
You do that by deciding NOW what you will do when you get triggered to self-sabotage. This is called “implementation intention”. Implementation intention is an “if this then that” method. For example:
“If I feel like watching TV instead of writing, then I will sit in meditation for 5 minutes.” You may be thinking what the heck does meditation have to do with writing? Well not much but it is still a healthy practice and in that 5 minutes I get to think about my big picture goal. The reason why an implementation intention works is because it diverts my attention from wanting to watch TV and stops me from acting impulsively and getting sucked into an old habit once again. After the 5 minutes are up I get to writing.
Another example might be, “If I crave chips, then I will do 10 pushups”. “If I’m tempted to check social media while I’m working then I will drink a glass of water.” I know it sounds crazy but there are studies proving that implementation intentions work. It is because having a plan in place for when things get hard eliminates your need to use willpower WHILE thinking about the chips, or the Netflix series or checking social media. Your trigger to self-sabotage MUST be your trigger to use your implementation intention.
When you create space between your craving and the desire to take action on the craving, you are able to act more rationally and that few seconds or minutes that it takes to perform your implementation intention creates that space.
I’ve talked about how it’s so important to be self aware if you want to make lasting habit change, and so acknowledging potential pitfalls before you embark on new habits AND planning on what you will do when you encounter those pitfalls is actually empowering. To start a new health journey and claim that this time you will somehow magically stay motivated or that you will just try to navigate each situation solely using willpower is setting yourself up for failure. Then at times when you do fail, you lose confidence and after awhile you lose the desire to keep going.
Implementation intentions are proven to help you have increased mental clarity regarding your goals, they also keep you motivated because having a plan (even one for failure) does that, it also makes you feel more in control. All of this is more powerful against challenging times than having no plan at all and just having to white knuckle it with willpower every time, which may work for awhile but eventually most give in.
Performing the implementation intention will also build your confidence! Overtime it will become second nature to perform you implementation intention and slowly your desire to self-sabotage starts to fade. But you must give it time and practice.
A couple of more tips on an effective implementation intention is that it you choose something that is simple to perform, that you do it RIGHT AWAY upon being triggered to self sabotage, and make it specific. Saying “if I crave chips, I will do 5 pushups” is more effective than “if I crave junk food I will do 5 minutes of exercice”.
So, what is one of your main triggers, and what implementation intention can you create to use less willpower and have more motivation as you work towards your biggest goals?
