Changing our sitting habit won’t be easy. We need all the models we can get to find our way. A pair of professorial brothers offers one useful approach.
In their book “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,” Chip Heath and Dan Heath observe that we routinely make huge changes effortlessly and even joyously – getting married, having kids, accepting a new job. But when it comes to smaller changes like adopting a modest exercise regimen or filing expense reports on time – or getting up out of our office chair on a regular basis – we all too often grumble and drag our feet.
They attribute this dynamic to our divided mind. Part of it operates rationally. Part of it is driven by emotion. As they put it, “The rational mind and the emotional mind compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine.”
When the rational and emotional minds line up – when a pair of smart, committed, love-struck twenty-somethings decides to get married, for example – changing from single life to marriage can be a relatively easy transition.
But when there is any disagreement between the rational and emotional minds change gets difficult. The key to changing your behavior in these situations, they say, is to align and balance the rational and irrational minds in pursuit of your goal, whether it’s weight loss, streamlined work habits, or even bigger changes.
The Heath brothers use a three-part analogy to navigate the change process.
- The rider represents your rational mind – staid and sane but prone to over-analysis.
- The elephant represents your irrational mind – the lumbering, powerful, passionate seeker of instant gratification.
- The path represents the environment in which change takes place.
Your rational rider needs encouragement in the form of direction to keep your behavior-change initiative on track. To “direct the rider,” you “follow the bright spots,” drawing on past successes and positive experiences to keep your motivation strong. You also “script critical moves,” specifying the exact behaviors that will get you to your goal – detailed instructions, not a vague goal like “lose weight.” You, of course, also “point to a desired destination” so that you know where you’re going.
Do you have a destination in mind for your office fitness journey?
Your irrational elephant needs encouragement in the form of emotionally understandable steps it can take. To motivate your elephant, you “find the feeling,” identifying the emotional elements – compassion, fear, dignity, etc. – that will keep it engaged in the change process. You need to cultivate your elephant’s sense of identity and let it know that growth is OK to help it feel comfortable through the change process. You also need to “shrink the change” for your elephant, breaking your bigger goals into more easily achievable tasks (clean out one dresser drawer, not the whole bedroom at once), which unblocks the way to the ultimate goal.
Can you think of one or two small, easily achievable new activities
you could do that would help you sit less at work?
You “shape the path“ by tweaking your environment to make change easy, turning off e-mail alerts, for example, to reduce distraction. To make it easy to scamper down the path, you also build small habits that support the bigger change you seek. You don’t have to run out and immediately buy a standing desk or a treadmill desk to get more routinely active at work.
Can you think of one or two little tweaks that could make to your existing office set-up
that would encourage you to stand up regularly throughout the day?
And, finally, you “rally the herd,” enlisting the help of friends, family, co-workers, and other allies to support your change.
Do any of your friends at work share your interest in combating “sitting disease”?
My focus on this blog and in the forthcoming “Scared Sitless” book is on habit formation and behavior change at the individual level. “Switch” looks at change at the individual level, the social/community level, and the societal/structural level. Another good book that takes this approach is “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything,” a slightly more intellectually rigorous look at the same terrain. If you’re looking to effect change beyond your own behavior – in your company, in your community, even in the world – “Switch” and “Influencer” are great starting points.