Neuroscience of Behaviour Change: Why New Years Resolutions Don't Work
I came across this little nugget of neuroscience that has helped me and many clients over the years actually stick to those New Years Resolutions and I had to share!
It turns out, the reason resolutions start losing momentum a few weeks into the New Year, is not because ‘we're lazy’ or ‘there’s no time,’ but because we don’t understand the building blocks of behaviour change! While we think we are in control of our behaviours, our subconscious beliefs and patterning are actually in the driving seat! A resolution is really just a decision to change a behaviour or form a new habit in sparkly-clothing, so we need to approach it as we would any other behaviour we want to change.
Dr. Tara Swart, a very clever neuroscientist from MIT, developed a four-stage formula — 1. Raised awareness 2. Focused attention 3. Deliberate Practice 4. Accountability— to shift an undesired behaviour or create a new one. Though working a goal/intention/resolution through each stage of the process, making it stick is possible! To help illustrate, let’s walk through the four stages with a goal that comes up a lot in counsel; ‘I want to lose 10 pounds’.
Raised Awareness- This means to identify something residing in your unconscious, that is preventing you from achieving your goal, and bring it up to the surface. In our example, this may look like asking yourself; why am I not achieving the goal I want? Maybe there is an underlying belief about not being able to reach any goal (from childhood?) - that is preventing the follow through? **Tip; try Stream of Consciousness Journaling to help uncover some of these beliefs/blocks!
Focused Attention- This means bringing awareness into your subconscious emotions or triggers driving your behaviour. For example; try to notice what food choices you make when you were tired or upset? **Tip - place a posted note on the snack cupboard to prompt you to notice when you reach for something not contributing to your goal. Recognizing a pattern is the key to changing it!
Deliberate Practice - This means taking purposeful action, that one small step, towards making your goal doable. In our example, this could look like, meal prepping one night a week to ensure you have healthy dinners and won’t order takeout when you’re tired and hungry! **Tip - start with raw ingredient meal-prep; chop up a bunch of kale or potatoes for easy roast dinners, or slice carrots for easy snacks rather than crisps
Accountability - This looks like having someone or some form of technology to demonstrate to yourself, objectively rather than subjectively, that you are working towards your goal and provide support along the way! For example, using a food tracking app to objectively reflect back at you that you are eating what you think you are, maybe a helpful tool. **Tip - make a WhatsApp chat with friends on a similar journey to help keep each other accountable and motivated.
And remember it is never too late to make a resolution or change an undesirable behaviour - we don’t need a New Year to change our life now! With these steps, you will be reaching your goals in no time!