Most people have a gap between the person they are and the person they want to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to commit to, like working out regularly, eating healthy, writing a novel, reading more or simply doing your hobby.  But it may seem that you must become different to achieve your goals. While other people can consistently put in more effort with discipline and willpower, maybe you find yourself slipping back into your old ways and always seem to fail.

Struggling to achieve your goals

Making a decision to do something is like moving through a real jungle: It's hard. Your brain hates using energy, so it came up with a trick. All your actions and behaviours leave paths in the jungle of your brain. The more often you do something, the more stamped out the trails become, so you take these familiar paths because it is comfortable and effortless. This explains why change is hard when your mind is full of established paths.

Change is actually hard

<ul><li>A routine is a sequence of actions you carry out the same way every time because they've worked well for you. For example, you get the same ingredients for your favourite dish and cook them the same way because you like the taste of the result.</li><li>Routines can eventually become habits, which feel easier because they are a sequence of actions you do without thinking about them. You don't have to convince yourself to do something that's a habit - you just do it.</li></ul>

Routines and habits

If we want to change and introduce a new behaviour into our lives,  we can focus on small changes, not big ones. Improving your life a little is much better than aiming high and doing nothing.

Introducing new habits

The best way to make change easier is not to force it with willpower. Instead, convince your brain that it's no big deal. For example, if you want to become fitter, the first thing to do is break this vague goal into clear, separate actions. The idea is to make the action as easy as possible. It should be so small that it is manageable and so specific that you don't have to think about it a lot. For example, doing ten squats every morning.

How to build a habit

Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time Get your Habit Journal here: https://shop-us.kurzgesagt.org/collections/habit Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-change/ If you are like most people, there is a gap between the person you are and the person you wish to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to achieve. From working out regularly, eating healthy, learning a language, working on your novel, reading more or simply actually doing your hobby instead of browsing reddit. But it can seem that to achieve your goals, you have to become a different person. Someone who is consistent, puts in more effort, has discipline and willpower. Maybe you have tried your hardest to be like that. And it worked! For a while. Until you find yourself slipping back into your old ways. In the end, you always seem to fail. And with every failed attempt, you become more and more frustrated and annoyed with yourself. If you believe “success and hustle” internet, it is all your own fault: if you don't succeed, you just didn’t want it enough and the failure is all you. But change is actually hard. But as with most things in life, understanding why makes things easier. OUR CHANNELS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ German: https://kgs.link/youtubeDE Spanish: https://kgs.link/youtubeES French: https://kgs.link/youtubeFR Portuguese: https://kgs.link/youtubePT Arabic: https://kgs.link/youtubeAR Hindi: https://kgs.link/youtubeHI Japanese: https://kgs.link/youtubeJA Korean: https://kgs.link/youtubeKO HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This is how we make our living and it would be a pleasure if you support us! Get Merch designed with ❤ https://kgs.link/shop Join the Patreon Bird Army 🐧 https://kgs.link/patreon DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Reddit: https://kgs.link/reddit Instagram: https://kgs.link/instagram Twitter: https://kgs.link/twitter Facebook: https://kgs.link/facebook Discord: https://kgs.link/discord Newsletter: https://kgs.link/newsletter OUR VOICE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Kurzgesagt voice is from Steve Taylor: https://kgs.link/youtube-voice OUR MUSIC ♬♪ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ 700+ minutes of Kurzgesagt Soundtracks by Epic Mountain: Spotify: https://kgs.link/music-spotify Soundcloud: https://kgs.link/music-soundcloud Bandcamp: https://kgs.link/music-bandcamp Youtube: https://kgs.link/music-youtube Facebook: https://kgs.link/music-facebook The Soundtrack of this video: Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/3MeaN4M Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/3as6FB9 If you want to help us caption this video, please send subtitles to subtitle@kurzgesagt.org You can find info on what subtitle files work on YouTube here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734698?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=7296214 Thank you! 🐦🐧🐤 PATREON BIRD ARMY 🐤🐧🐦 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Many Thanks to our wonderful Patreons (from http://kgs.link/patreon) who support us every month and made this video possible: ziipzaaapM16A4, Filippo, Alloy robot, Harold Mabin Jr, Toby Lowe, BiohazardVictim, Riad Salihu, Gunnstein Lye, Jeff Wheeldon, Andy Kelly, Quenby Joanette, Daniel Schulte-Hillen, Val Kabalkin, Maximilian Thomas Goldstein, Tyler Lindberg, Felix, Davesanify, Russ Newman, Kira, Thomas Schenck, Skyler Stanley, dirk from wellington, LoveGiants (Polyamorous) Seeking 4 BrotherHusbands, BalrogWing, Coffee is the path to victory, Addie, Lucas, vb, Santiago Perez, Robert Walsh, Angus Jake Smith, JamesDBartlett3, Marlison Gosalvez de Alencar, Rahul Golwalkar, Keerthi Vasan, Brian Bradley, Lincoln Volk, Haubrechts, Avalanche, Craig B, Tina Hatch, Nathan Ornat, Amathara, khalifa almehairbi, jtfletchbot, Steven Zeck, Maurice Ibler, Bafy78, Andreas Høve Smidt-Nielsen, Victoria Camp, Andrew Dawson, pierluigi valente, GH, Jay C, Sergey Melnik, CultistLemming, Thane Stevens, Alex MacKay, SimpleAvocado, Dave Kircher, Karen Rosenow, James Pita, Kyron

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Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time
Get your Habit Journal here: https://kgs.link/shop-162

Sources & further reading:
https://sites.google.com/view/sources-change/

If you are like most people, there is a gap between the person you are and the person you wish to be. There are little things you think you should do and big things you ought to achieve.
From working out regularly, eating healthy, learning a language, working on your novel, reading more or simply actually doing your hobby instead of browsing reddit.
But it can seem that to achieve your goals, you have to become a different person. Someone who is consistent, puts in more effort, has discipline and willpower. Maybe you have tried your hardest to be like that. And it worked! For a while. Until you find yourself slipping back into your old ways. In the end, you always seem to fail. And with every failed attempt, you become more and more frustrated and annoyed with yourself. 
If you believe “success and hustle” internet, it is all your own fault: if you don't succeed, you just didn’t want it enough and the failure is all you. But change is actually hard. But as with most things in life, understanding why makes things easier. 


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Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

The standard number of daily steps seems to be 10,000 steps a day, but it didn’t come from science — and no one is exactly sure where it comes from.Most probably, it <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/health/10000-steps-evidence-study/">is from</a> the name of a pedometer that was sold in Japan in 1965, which was called Manpo-kei and translates to “10,000 steps meter” in English.

The Number Of Steps To Be Taken Daily

If you think back to ancestral humans — before farming was done — we were all hunter-gatherers, and getting food took effort. If hunting and gathering had been too taxing physically for our ancestors, well, we’d have evolved differently. Being able to move a lot also means being capable of moving to places with better food when needed. If this kind of movement also keeps us healthy, it’s an evolutionary win.

The Evolution Of Walking

Data from <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31141585/">a study was published in 2019</a> showed that among women ages 45 and older, those women who took 4,400 steps per day had significantly lower mortality than those with 2,700 steps per day. In fact, the more steps the women took, the lower the mortality rate until they reached 7,500 steps per day where the benefits leveled off. Interestingly, the speed of the steps didn’t matter, just the number of steps.

The More You Walk, The Healthier You Are

Among adults younger than 60, the more steps taken, the lower the mortality rate until reaching 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. For those aged 60 and older, the health benefit plateaued around 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.Women in the US seem to average a little less than 5,000 steps a day, so many people are starting from a good place.

The Verdict: 8k to 10k Steps A Day

Dr. Jen Gunter, ob/gyn, author and podcast host, looks at the belief that people need to take 10,000 steps a day -- and explains what the science says about it.

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How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

<ul><li>Researchers and philosophers identify two types of psychological well-being, which can be summarized as the purposeful and the pleasurable. </li><li>Previous research has already established that, on average, wealthy people experience happier, more meaningful lives. </li><li>A new study asks a more nuanced question: Does meaning predict happiness, regardless of wealth? The results suggest that meaning is less important to happiness for wealthy people. </li><li>More importantly, meaning may be extra important for people without much money.</li></ul>

Key Takeaways

Researchers and philosophers differentiate between two types of psychological wellbeing: eudaimonic (the meaningful, purposeful, or significant) and hedonic (the pleasurable or enjoyable). The latter aligns with what most people term “happiness.” To understand the distinction, imagine working hard on an important life goal. This might feel meaningful, but unpleasant. On the other hand, taking heroin might feel meaningless, but enjoyable.

Defining Meaning and Happiness

Meaning and happiness are rarely totally separate. In general, meaningful experiences make people feel happy, and vice versa. For example, spending time with friends, buying gifts for others, and celebrating life milestones can be both meaningful and enjoyable. Finding meaning in life is therefore usually a good way to boost happiness.

Finding Meaning Boosts Happiness

To the possible disappointment of anyone hoping to indulge in some schadenfreude, prior research establishes that, on average, <a href="https://nobascholar.com/chapters/34/download.pdf">wealthy people experience happier</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118">more meaningful</a> lives than their lower-income counterparts. This is probably because money can buy both meaning and happiness, so long as you <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1057740811000209">spend it in the right way</a> — for instance, by purchasing experiences, time with loved ones, or gifts for others.

Money Does Buy Happiness

On one hand, meaning might be especially important for wealthy people’s happiness, since all of their basic needs are met and they have the resources to pursue grand, meaningful experiences. On the other hand, meaning may be less important, because it is easier for the wealthy to pursue happiness in other ways, like fancy trips, fun cars, and big parties.

The Paradox Of Wealth

The wealthier someone is, the less meaning affects their happiness levels. Importantly, this does not mean that high-income people reported less overall meaning or happiness — their levels were about as high, or even higher, than those of lower-income participants. But the study found that meaning was less important to their happiness.

Study 1: The Americans

Once again, the correlation between meaning and happiness became smaller as wealth increased.This pattern held in 10 out of 11 world regions, including Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Study 2: The World

For wealth status, participants rated their socioeconomic status using the MacArthur social ladder, which asks participants where they believe they stand compared to others considering their money, education, and jobs.  Once again, the higher someone reported being on the socio-economic ladder, the less meaning predicted their happiness.

Study 3: Different Questions

One of the downsides of large survey studies, of course, is that the researchers cannot control every relevant factor that could affect the results. In particular, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6793(199701)14:1%3C71::AID-MAR5%3E3.0.CO;2-L">age and religiosity</a> are correlated with meaning and income, making them potential confounding factors. Additionally, income might affect how much meaning and happiness vary — in other words, how much their scores can be expected to spread out. This can affect statistical analyses.

Confounding Factors

In short, data from more than 500,000 people suggest that meaning is less important to happiness for wealthy people. This does not mean that wealthy people are struggling to find meaning: Both their meaning and happiness levels are on par with, or even higher than, their lower-income counterparts.  Perhaps wealthy people simply do not need meaning to be happy. Their resources minimize the stress of meeting daily needs like paying bills or affording food. They can also afford the kinds of purchases that boost happiness, like fun experiences and enjoyable hobbies.

The Findings: The Rich Are Busy Being Rich

The more important takeaway is that meaning may be extra important for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613507286">people without much money</a>. Compared to their wealthier counterparts, poor people suffer high rates of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hec.1011">depression and other mental health</a> problems. Incorporating meaning-making into one’s life may be a free way to improve happiness.

Meaning Is A Currency Of The Poor

Philosophers identify two different kinds of happiness. Research finds that having money makes it easier to attain both of them.

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Money & Investments

Can't buy me meaning? Money cuts a quicker path to happiness

The pursuit of happiness and meaning are two of our most central motivations in life. A wealth of research in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Flourish-Visionary-Understanding-Happiness-Well-being/dp/1439190763">positive psychology</a> suggests that happiness and meaning are, in fact, essential elements of well-being. Happiness and meaning are <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439760802303044#.VqUZcLzLHb8">strongly correlated with each other</a>, and often feed off each other. The more meaning we find in life, the more happy we typically feel, and the more happy we feel, the more we often feel encouraged to pursue even greater meaning and purpose.

The Pursuit Of Happiness Vs Finding Meaning In Life

Parents often report that they are very happy they had children, but parents who are living with children usually score very low on measures of happiness. It seems that raising children can decrease happiness but increase meaning. Similarly, revolutionaries often suffer through years of violence and discord for a larger purpose, which ultimately brings great satisfaction and meaning to their lives and the lives of others.

Parenthood Paradox

In recent years, a number of studies have further supported the differences between happiness and meaning.  Quite predictably, factors such as feeling connected to others, feeling productive, and not being alone or bored contributed to both happiness and meaning.Some differences:<ul><li>Finding one’s life easy or difficult was related to happiness, but not meaning.</li><li>Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning.</li><li>Feeling good was related to happiness, not meaning.</li><li>Scarcity of money reduced happiness more than meaning.</li><li>Relationships are more important than achievements.</li></ul>

Differences Between Happiness And Meaning

It seems that happiness has more to do with having your needs satisfied, getting what you want, and feeling good, whereas meaning is more related to uniquely human activities such as developing a personal identity, expressing the self, and consciously integrating one’s past, present, and future experiences.

Happiness Is Fleeting

Meaning<a href="http://www.drpaulwong.com/a-decade-of-meaning-past-present-and-future/"> has at least two major components</a>: the cognitive processing component involves making sense and integrating experiences, and a purpose component, which is more motivational and involves actively pursuing long-term goals that reflect one’s identity and transcend narrow self-interests. An extensive study found that the frequency of positive emotions was only weakly related to measures of adaptive functioning at follow-up (which ranged from half a year to 7 years). In fact, positive emotionality was negatively related to optimism and positively related to emotion suppression at follow-up.

The Two Components Of Meaning

While happiness may make us feel good in the moment, the avoidance of negative thoughts and feelings may stunt personal development over time. After all, personal development often requires experiencing a full range of emotions. There is also emerging research that over time, happiness is associated with an <a href="http://scholar.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/clanderson/files/mauss_savino_anderson_weisbuch_tamir_laudenslager_2011.pdf">increased sense of loneliness</a> and a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160511/">decreased sense of well-being</a>.

The Downside Of Happiness

The two measures of meaning (cognitive processing and purpose) were positively associated with most of the measures of adaptation. In particular, cognitive processing was very strongly related to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grit-The-Power-Passion-Perseverance/dp/1501111108">grit</a> (passion and perseverance for long-term goals), and self-distancing was robustly related to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Science-Gratitude-Make-Happier/dp/0618620192">gratitude</a> and well-being, and negatively related to emotion suppression. The interaction between cognitive processing and self-distancing was additionally associated with measures of adaptation. Meaning-making is particularly adaptive if one can maintain a self-detached third-person perspective.

Become A Detached Witness To Life

Years of research on the psychology of well-being have demonstrated that often human beings are happiest when they are engaged in meaningful pursuits and virtuous activities.A further investigation of the similarities and differences between happiness and meaning can contribute substantially to our understanding of this ‘sweet-spot’ of well-being: that seemingly magical combination of happiness and meaning that sets off the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4230387/A_Virtuous_Cycle_The_Relationship_Between_Happiness_and_Virtue">virtuous cycle</a> that can ultimately lead to a life well-lived.

A Life Well-Lived

We only scratched the surface of what life is.

The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life

The researchers looked for recurring features in the models and found six: personalization, a closed-loop process, asset sharing, usage-based pricing, a collaborative ecosystem, and an agile and adaptive organization. No model displayed all of them but having a higher number of features usually correlated with a greater chance of success at transformation. (The taxi service Uber can claim five of the six.)

The Main Recurring Features Of Transformative Companies

Definitions of the “business model” vary, but most people would agree that it describes how a company creates and captures value. The features of the model define the customer value proposition and the pricing mechanism, indicate how the company will organize itself and whom it will partner with to produce value, and specify how it will structure its supply chain. Basically, a business model is a system whose various features interact, often in complex ways, to determine the company’s success.

How Business Models Work

Many models replace a linear consumption process (in which products are made, used, and then disposed of) with a closed-loop, in which used products are recycled. This shift reduces overall resource costs.

A Closed-Loop Process

Many new models offer products or services that are better tailored than the dominant models to customers’ individual and immediate needs. Companies often leverage technology to achieve this at competitive prices.

The Six Keys to Success: A More Personalized Product or Service

Some innovations succeed because they enable the sharing of costly assets—Airbnb allows homeowners to share them with travellers, and Uber shares assets with car owners. Sometimes assets may be shared across a supply chain. The sharing typically happens by means of two-sided online marketplaces that unlock value for both sides: I get money from renting my spare room, and you get a cheaper and perhaps nicer place to stay. Sharing also reduces entry barriers to many industries, because an entrant need not own the assets in question; it can merely act as an intermediary.

 Asset Sharing

Some models charge customers when they use the product or service, rather than requiring them to buy something outright. The customers benefit because they incur costs only as offerings generate value; the company benefits because the number of customers is likely to grow.

Usage-Based Pricing

Some innovations are successful because a new technology improves collaboration with supply chain partners and helps allocate business risks more appropriately, making cost reductions possible.

A More Collaborative Ecosystem

Innovators sometimes use technology to move away from traditional hierarchical models of decision making in order to make decisions that better reflect market needs and allow real-time adaptation to changes in those needs. The result is often greater value for the customer at less cost to the company.

An Agile and Adaptive Organization

Discover the world of business and economics.

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The 6 Elements of Truly Transformative Business Models

"With an inward mindset, people behave in ways that are calculated to benefit themselves. With an outward mindset, people are able to consider and behave in ways that further the collective results that they are committed to achieve."

"To be outward doesn’t mean that people should adopt this or that prescribed behavior… it means that when people see the needs, challenges, desires, and humanity of others, the most effective ways to adjust their efforts occur to them in the moment. "

"So while the goal in shifting mindsets is to get everyone turned toward each other, accomplishing this goal is possible only if people are prepared to turn their mindsets toward others with no expectation that others will change their mindsets in return."

The outward mindset is a way of looking at the world. It involves seeing beyond yourself and making others feel valued. An outward mindset focuses on others, on what is important to all stakeholders: our employees, customers, manager, family members. An outward mindset means that we genuinely see (and hear and listen to) others. We evaluate their needs, objectives, and challenges rather than focusing on our own. When we do this, options occur to us that never could have before (e.g., the formula story) and we can focus on the collective result we desire.

The Outward Mindset

An inward mindset is focused on self-benefit and self-concern—our individual self-interest or if we are operating in a larger organization, our individual team, or our division. When people focus on themselves rather than on their impact, lots of activity and effort get wasted on the wrong things. Collaboration suffers, innovation is limited and employees disengage due to the boredom inherent with inward-mindset thinking and working.

The Inward Mindset

The framework for working with the Outward Mindset goes by the acronym SAM—See others, Adjust efforts and Measure impact.<ul><li>See others: Ask your executive team to see what each of their colleagues is doing and push the executives to reveal what is not working, to be vulnerable about their real needs and challenges. </li><li>Adjust efforts: Once challenges are revealed, invite the team to step in and help. </li><li>Measure impact: At weekly meetings, the executive team assesses the effects of the help they are providing across the entire team’s efforts.</li></ul>

See, Adjust, Measure

Adopt an outward mindset even when others don’t. Rather than complain, we can make the move we are waiting for the other person to make—we can act the way we want the other person to act. While we think this might lead us to be taken advantage of, it is not a “soft” thing to do—in fact, it’s a hard behavior that requires courage. Putting others’ interests first when we aren’t sure others are doing the same is a scary move.

Make the First Move

Unknowingly, too many of us operate from an inward mindset—a narrow-minded focus on self-centered goals and objectives. When faced with personal ineffectiveness or lagging organizational performance, most of us instinctively look for quick-fix behavioral band-aids, not recognizing the underlying mindset at the heart of our most persistent challenges. Through true stories and simple yet profound guidance and tools, The Outward Mindset enables individuals and organizations to make the one change that most dramatically improves performance, sparks collaboration, and accelerates innovation—a shift to an outward mindset.

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The Arbinger Institute has helped millions with their books Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace. Their newest book, The Outward Mindset, reflects their latest research and experience and offers a new and intuitive way to teach people how to implement mindset change in themselves and scale it across organizations, with incredible effect. One's mindset governs how one views the world, what one does, and how one does it. One's mindset can be self-focused, which Arbinger calls an inward mindset, or it can be inclusive of others, which Arbinger calls an outward mindset. It turns out that our own actions, and others responses to those actions, end up being dramatically different depending on which mindset we are operating from. The Outward Mindset teaches readers how to shift more fully to an outward mindset and how to help others, even whole organizations, to make that shift-a shift that sparks innovation, increases accountability, and transforms collaboration, engagement, and fulfillment.

Arbinger Institute

The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves

One of the most effective ways to change your behaviour is to change your identity: Changing the way you see yourself.Our perception of who we are—our identity or self-image—has a dramatic effect on our future actions.Self-image is a cognitive shortcut that helps our brains make otherwise difficult choices in advance, thereby streamlining the decision-making process.

Use the Psychology of Self-Image to Transform Your Habits for Good

There is psychological empowerment that comes with saying, “I don’t,” rather than, “I can’t.”The results of a study demonstrate the influence that self-description and self-image have on our behaviour—we think; therefore, we will be.The way we think of ourselves can have a profound impact on how we deal with distractions and unintended behaviours.To leverage the power of identity to fight distraction, we can make an “identity pact,” which is a precommitment to a self-image that helps us pursue what we really want.

“I don’t” Vs “I can’t”

By aligning our behaviours with our identity, we make choices based on who we want to be.To do this, start by identifying the behaviour you want to stop. For example, say you’d like to stop eating meat. For people who view themselves as meat-eaters trying to quit, the task of cutting out meat cold turkey can seem large and daunting because they feel as though they are constrained: “I can’t stop eating meat!”Vegetarians, by contrast, have an easier time abstaining from meat. They don’t feel as though they are constrained; abstaining from meat is instead simply an expression of who they are.

How to Align Your Identity With a Behaviour

Making identity pacts can empower us to become the individuals we want to be. Whether the behaviour is related to what we eat, how we treat others, or how we manage distraction, this technique can help mould our behaviour to fit our <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/common-values/">values</a>.

The Bottom Line

Change your behaviour by becoming a different kind of individual.

One way to change your behavior is to change your identity. Wait, what? Yep, our perception of who we are has a dramatic effect on our future actions.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

The Key to Behavior Change is Identity Change

Research shows that people are more cautious to speak up at work than they were a few years ago. 
In a survey, nine out of ten respondents felt emotionally or physically unsafe to speak out. Topics people dreaded addressing were political or social issues (74%), and pandemic issues (70%).

Feeling unsafe to speak out

When we address issues that are emotionally and politically risky, we tend to see the other person more negatively. We tell ourselves stories that show us as virtuous victims and the other party as the villain. We then form emotions of disgust and fear that give rise to conflict and lead to a downward spiral that reinforces our story. A study found that subjects who tended to tell more extreme stories about their colleagues were more than three times more likely to feel fearful and 3.5 times more likely to lack the confidence to speak their minds with peers.

We dread speaking up because of the stories we tell ourselves

<ul><li>Make it safe. When emotions escalate, reassure others of your respect for them.</li><li>Get curious. Rather than trying to decide who is right, aim to understand the other person's view. Ask questions and try to understand.</li><li>Start with facts behind your point of view, not judgments or opinions.</li><li>Don't focus on convincing. Your main goal should not be to change the other person's mind but to encourage sharing ideas.</li><li>Be confident in your opinion but humble enough to accept that you don't have all the answers and that new information might change your view.</li></ul>

How to have a conversation around tough topics

Research-backed tactics to lower the temperature when talking about hot-button topics.

communication

Communication

How to Respectfully Discuss Contentious Issues at Work

If you're still expecting to be who you were when the pandemic started, and especially if you've stayed at the same company, reflect on how you view yourself day-to-day. It's entirely ok not to hold yourself to standards you set when you had more energy, less stress, and less overall mess occurring around you. It's ok to set the bar lower. You're not a low performer for it. We're all tired—we need to give ourselves some leniency.

Change is the only constant

productivity

Productivity

You're not who you were before—that's ok

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step.”

Not many people are able to continue their new year resolutions after about four months. It is only after many annual resolution abandonments that a small number of people succeed. The initial steps are hard.
Kaizen, the theory of ‘one small step’ has two aspects:
<ol>
<li>Any habit, process or project can be improved by using tiny steps.</li>
<li>Each product, service or invention can be inspired in very small moments.</li>
</ol>

A Million Miles To Go

Humans tend to come back towards comfort and have a fixation with ‘big’, favouring big steps, big upgrades, big changes and producing humongous results.
<ul>
<li>Meaningful changes come from small steps that are doable and don’t overwhelm our bodies and mind. </li>
<li>New Year Resolutions that start from the very next day are setting us up for failure already.</li>
<li>The Kaizen way is to do the bare minimum, pushing yourself so little that it is hardly noticeable.</li>
</ul>

Meaningful Change

Signing up for the gym is easy, but setting aside an hour every day and travelling daily to the gym is not so easy. The sudden shift from no exercise to one hour daily can be eased by slowly moving towards exercise, making minuscule progress every day.
Slowly and slowly, the new habit is formed with minimum friction, and with great, dramatic results. We don’t even realize how those drops of effort fill up and create an ocean.

Going To The Gym

Rushing up a steep road towards the top of the hill will only make you breathless. You will see that the summit is too far away and you are tired, wanting to turn back.A better way is to leisurely and gently tread the path only focusing on that next step, with no rush to reach. You won’t even realize when you reached the summit.This lesson can be applied to save time, starting an exercise regime or any new habit.

Climbing The Hill Using Kaizen

Making big changes right away is a failure waiting to happen. Anything can be done the Kaizen way, by taking tiny steps that move towards the desired direction.Example: If you want to save money, have a tiny goal of saving a dollar every day. Make innovative changes in your daily schedule to accomplish saving that dollar, like sharing one cup of coffee with a friend, or reading news online instead of buying from the newsstand. You would have USD 365 extra at the end of the year.

Small Steps To Do Anything

We try to change too many things at once, too quickly. We need to learn how to start small.

Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

How many steps a day do we really need to take? Here are the facts

Can't buy me meaning? Money cuts a quicker path to happiness

The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life

The 6 Elements of Truly Transformative Business Models

Reese R.