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At this point, hopefully, you have picked a behavior or two that you plan to stop. Please share with me what you are stopping by replying to this email. I’d love to hear from you!
Last time, I said I would share what behavior I want to stop.
My focus for the next little while will be on having my phone away between 4 and 6 PM.
So now what?
Changing behaviors takes a lot of work and there is a lot of science behind what works and what doesn’t! We are going to focus today on one teeny tiny step that I know will have a major impact on your success. It may sound juvenile, or even ridiculous to the more staid among you. I, myself, would have written this tool off in years past. So what do I want you to do today?
IMAGINE!
I want you to think about what it will look like if you stop the behavior. I want you to think about it using all of your senses. (I know you think I am really nuts now.) What do you hear, smell, taste, see, feel?
Think about as many scenarios as you can and play them out in your head.
Let’s take an example.
Mary is trying to buy end of the year gifts for her children’s teachers. She has a budget and found a great, inexpensive idea on pinterest. Now, she has to go shopping to buy the gifts, wrap them, write cards, and deliver them on the last day of school.
Mary knows that as soon as she goes into the store, her plan can be derailed. Historically, if she didn’t see what she was looking for in the first store, she got frustrated and gave up. She ended up buying something that was way too expensive and then she was really upset with herself.
Now let’s apply our imagination strategy with Mary.
Mary takes five minutes before she leaves to the store to imagine. She thinks about what she wants to happen.
She closes her eyes and calmly pictures herself walking into the store, the bright lights, the displays, the smells, and more. She imagines walking over to a store worker for help locating the item she is looking for.
She pictures herself walking to the checkout with the gifts in hand, imagining the feel of the cash in hand being handed over to the cashier, and walking out happily with her purchases and nothing else! Success!
Now, Mary opens her eyes and replays the scene, but when she walks over to the worker, she is told, “I’m sorry, we don’t carry that. Can I show you something else?” Mary pictures herself replying “No thank you.” and walking out of the store. She imagines looking at her watch to see if she has time now to go to another store or needs to leave this task for another time.
The more options you play out in your mind, the more prepared you will be to deal with any challenge that comes your way.
For this week, imagine three scenarios (or more) that allow you to reach your goal!
Let me know how this works for you.