Picture the scene:  It’s Sunday night.  You’ve overindulged.  And you don’t feel great about yourself.

Enough is enough, you say.  Starting tomorrow (because it’s Monday) things are going to be different.  From now on, I am going to… [insert latest personal vow].

Perhaps you resolve to get up early, eat clean or hit the gym.  Usually it’s about things you swear to resist: cookies, crisps, or perhaps wine or beer.

You feel quite positive about your decision.  Motivated.  Resolute, even.  This time…, you tell yourself.

Before you know it (sometimes even the very next day) the vow has been broken and you’re left lamenting your lack of willpower …again.  Sunday night swings around once more (or your Summer holiday is edging closer, or it’s New Year) and you’re back at it, willing harder than ever to follow through ‘this time’.

What went wrong?

We tend to believe it’s about willpower.  We just weren’t disciplined enough.  But more often than not, that’s not the case.

Our behaviour is fuelled by habit and emotion.  We’re also heavily influenced by our environment.  More than we’d ever believe.

Maybe your vow was to eat better.  You had a busy day at work.  You get home and follow your usual habit of opening the kitchen cupboard to see what’s for dinner.  You see the crisps in the cupboard.  You rationalise that you should resist the crisps.  You tell yourself that you should eat something better.

But your limited willpower has already been used at work.  That’s totally normal.  What’s more, your brain has the ‘emotional bookmark’ of the pleasure you get from munching those crisps.  You’re fighting a losing battle.  No amount of willpower will work.

What to do instead

I was stuck in the willpower cycle for a long time.  I just need to be more disciplined, I thought.

I was wrong.

Willpower doesn’t last.  You can’t just decide to change.  It’s not enough.

In the book, Switch: How to change things when change is hard, Chip and Dan Heath share the analogy of a rider on an elephant.

• The rider is our rational brain.
• The elephant is our emotions.
• The path is our environment.

While the rider can steer the elephant to some extent, being rational will only take us so far.  The elephant can easily overpower the rider.  The high of a binge on cookies or chocolate or alcohol is way more powerful than the intellectual decision to get in shape.

We need the rational decision to change and the emotional reason to do so.  Crucially, the Heath brothers also advise us to shape the path.  We have to tweak our environment.

The elephant will have a hard job staying on track if there are several paths leading him astray.

Consider your path:

• What do you want to do and where are you likely to be lead astray?
• What triggers you to deviate from your goal?
• What are the biggest influences and obstacles in your environment?
• How can you tweak or minimise them?
• How can you make it easier to make better choices?

Continuing the example from above, maybe tweaking the environment is as simple as not keeping crisps in the kitchen cupboard.  Or having a meal planned or prepared so you know exactly what you’re going to do when you come in from work.

If you decide to change but then walk that same old path with the same old environment and influences, you can expect your same old habits to take hold.

BIG IDEA: Willing yourself to change doesn’t work.

TAKEAWAY: Shape the path: tweak your environment towards success.

ACTION STEP: Write down ONE thing you can do to shape your path and make better decisions when your willpower is low.

Always Keep Reaching!

Mike