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Self-Efficacy
It means believing in your ability to perform a task and achieve goals. There are 3 ways to build self-efficacy:
- Ensure early success. When first starting out, choose activities you're certain you can do successfully.
- Watch others succeed in the activity you want to try. This is particularly effective if the person you're observing is similar to you (friends, neighbors, co-workers).
- Find a supportive voice. Personal trainers and coaches are skilled in giving appropriate encouragement, as are good friends (usually).
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
External rewards (like compliments, fitting into a smaller size, or winning a race) might get a person started but it won't last in the long-term.
A fundamentally independent thinker understands that nothing makes a person upset, angry, or depressed; rather, what a person thinks about the world determines how they feel.
- Emotional reasoning means if a person feels something, they automatically assume it must be fact ("I feel like a loser, so I must be one").
- Predictions of failure: when a person makes predictions using FEAR, or False Evidence Accepted as Real ("I know I'll make a fool of myself in front of everyone in the gym when I try to lift weights, and I'll fail").
- "Mind-reading". A person assumes people are reacting negatively to them when there's no evidence for this assumption.
SMARTER goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely, developed Enthusiastically, and attached to Rewards).
SMARTER goals take the guesswork out of routines, so we're more likely to stick to them.
A person commits to a behavioral change and then establishes a "contract" (with a partner, a friend) whereby some consequence (usually a monetary one) results from the person failing to achieve their goal. The idea is that the desire to avoid the consequence helps keep people more committed to success.
RELATED IDEAS
They refer to the plan you make about when and where to act before the action occurs.
The format for creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.”
Implementation intentions are an effective way of sticking to your goals.
Our mind has muscles. It memorizes patterns. By doing this over and over, you're building your willpower and self-discipline.
Forcing yourself to do things that you don't feel like doing (but you know you should be doing) is a habit you can learn.
- It increases both serotonin, a neurotransmitter that promotes calm, and also phenylethylamine, which promotes stimulation. White chocolate does both even more intensely.
- It triggers a release of dopamine, which will elevate your heart rate and significantly increase motivation.
- It also results in a mild antidepressant effect, literally because your brain responds to the stimulants by promoting blissful emotions.
Other dopamine-inducing foods that can help maintain a healthy diet: blueberries, spirulina, and fish high in Omega-3 fats.