I’m a distance runner-- which means, almost by default, I am also a podcast addict. One of my favorites, WNYC’s Radiolab, did a program the other day that I felt was worth passing along here. No, it’s not “about fitness,” in fact, if it’s mentioned at all, it’s mentioned in passing. But it has a worthy message for people who struggle daily with an internal battle to stay on their fitness and nutrition path.
“Help—What to do when your own worst enemy is you?” tells several stories that highlight examples of ways people can trick themselves into making resolve stick in the face of temptation, from a civil rights activist who promises to give $5000 to the Klu Klux Klan if she smokes another cigarette to Ulysses cramming his oarsmen’s ears with wax to avoid the Sirens’ song. (Unless you are running 20 miles and have nothing better to do, skip the interview with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, I’m not sure why they put it in this episode, but it really brings nothing to the party…)
Some of my favorite tricks from the episode and elsewhere:
Make it Immediate: People often have a tough time sticking to health-related goals because the benefits are seemingly so far off. Cake now or abs in July? Happy hour with friends after work or a lesser chance of Type-II diabetes at some point down the road? One way to do this is to look for the immediate benefit in making the right choice—Imagine how you feel after that workout, or how you feel after a healthy meal vs an ice cream gorge. Another is to create an immediate reward. My friends laugh because I have a stickerchart on my fridge and give myself stickers for accomplishing certain things throughout the day. Another is to break your goals up so that you hit rewards more frequently. If your goal is to avoid a family history of heart disease down the road, for example, work with your doctor to come up with “today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year” goals that will have your risk reduced by next year and celebrate each step along the way.
Negative Reinforcement: The woman in the podcast who promised her friend she’d give $5000 to the KKK if she smoked again now has a handy web tool at her disposal. Stickk.com lets you set a contract and place funds into trust—upon confirmation from a third party that you’ve hit your goals, the money goes to a charity you like, if you do not hit your goals, it goes to a charity you dislike. (You get to select the charities on both ends, but to be effective you need to make the anti-charity one that really makes your toes curl.)
Practice Avoidance: I know there are mixed opinions on this tactic, but I say—if you walk by a Starbucks on your way to the office every day and feel like you must stop for a full-fat latte each time, walk a different way. If you eat the whole tub of ice cream every time it is in your house, don’t let ice cream into the house.
Tie Your Hands: Like Ulysses stuffing his oarsmen’s ears with wax so they couldn’t hear his protests, once you make a decision to avoid something, take steps to make sure that decision can’t be reversed, no matter how much you rail against it. Tell the bartender at your favorite watering hole you’re only doing club soda for a month, let the waitress at your local café know you’ll not be having pie until June, if the lure of TV is keeping you from getting to the gym, put cable on hold. Do whatever you can to make reversing your decision costly—either emotionally or financially.
Yes, at the end of the day these are just tricks to bolster what is really at work here—your own motivation and resolve. There is no magic wand that will make sure you make the right choice all the time painlessly, but I’d love to hear what tricks you use to fight your internal “bad apple.”
“Help—What to do when your own worst enemy is you?” tells several stories that highlight examples of ways people can trick themselves into making resolve stick in the face of temptation, from a civil rights activist who promises to give $5000 to the Klu Klux Klan if she smokes another cigarette to Ulysses cramming his oarsmen’s ears with wax to avoid the Sirens’ song. (Unless you are running 20 miles and have nothing better to do, skip the interview with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, I’m not sure why they put it in this episode, but it really brings nothing to the party…)
Some of my favorite tricks from the episode and elsewhere:
Make it Immediate: People often have a tough time sticking to health-related goals because the benefits are seemingly so far off. Cake now or abs in July? Happy hour with friends after work or a lesser chance of Type-II diabetes at some point down the road? One way to do this is to look for the immediate benefit in making the right choice—Imagine how you feel after that workout, or how you feel after a healthy meal vs an ice cream gorge. Another is to create an immediate reward. My friends laugh because I have a stickerchart on my fridge and give myself stickers for accomplishing certain things throughout the day. Another is to break your goals up so that you hit rewards more frequently. If your goal is to avoid a family history of heart disease down the road, for example, work with your doctor to come up with “today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year” goals that will have your risk reduced by next year and celebrate each step along the way.
Negative Reinforcement: The woman in the podcast who promised her friend she’d give $5000 to the KKK if she smoked again now has a handy web tool at her disposal. Stickk.com lets you set a contract and place funds into trust—upon confirmation from a third party that you’ve hit your goals, the money goes to a charity you like, if you do not hit your goals, it goes to a charity you dislike. (You get to select the charities on both ends, but to be effective you need to make the anti-charity one that really makes your toes curl.)
Practice Avoidance: I know there are mixed opinions on this tactic, but I say—if you walk by a Starbucks on your way to the office every day and feel like you must stop for a full-fat latte each time, walk a different way. If you eat the whole tub of ice cream every time it is in your house, don’t let ice cream into the house.
Tie Your Hands: Like Ulysses stuffing his oarsmen’s ears with wax so they couldn’t hear his protests, once you make a decision to avoid something, take steps to make sure that decision can’t be reversed, no matter how much you rail against it. Tell the bartender at your favorite watering hole you’re only doing club soda for a month, let the waitress at your local café know you’ll not be having pie until June, if the lure of TV is keeping you from getting to the gym, put cable on hold. Do whatever you can to make reversing your decision costly—either emotionally or financially.
Yes, at the end of the day these are just tricks to bolster what is really at work here—your own motivation and resolve. There is no magic wand that will make sure you make the right choice all the time painlessly, but I’d love to hear what tricks you use to fight your internal “bad apple.”
