Episode 150 – 3 Steps to Making a Change
Posted on July 5, 2016
A lot of people feel it – the want or the need to change, but as easy it as it is to recognize that need to change most people don’t know or understand how to make it. That’s why today, we’re talking about the three steps you need to take when it comes to making those changes a reality.
After doing that intro, I realize it sounds kind of hokey, like ‘sure if I just follow these 3 steps to making a change, then I can make anything I want happen’ but I know, just as you listening to this right now know, that making a change is hard and if it was actually as easy as following 3 steps, there wouldn’t be a need for this show or any self-help show for that matter, because everyone would just follow the blueprint and make the changes they needed for the results they wanted. Which is why these are macro level or big pictures steps, that will help you ask yourself the right micro level questions to help you take the appropriate actions to make your change happen.
Normally we would start like this – Step 1 – Identify the problem, except –
The problem with identifying ‘the problem’ you want to change is that it often comes in the form of something external, like “I want to lose weight therefore I will start buying healthier food” or “I want to get faster at a race therefore I will buy new running shoes.” Yes those are both important and often required or sometimes even the first step you need to make, but how often have you bought healthier food, only to let it rot in the crisper or bought a new pair of running shoes or piece of fitness equipment to use once or twice then watched it collect dust.
What you need to focus on to create change is the behaviour that you think will lead to the outcome.
Don’t focus on the end – focus on the means.
Step 1 – Identify what you want to change
Step 2 – Identify the behaviours associated with that change
Step 3 – Change the behaviour that needs to be changed.
When you approach it like this then the outcome takes care of itself. If it doesn’t you’ve changed the wrong thing. Let’s say for the sake of this episode you want to focus on running 10k instead of 5k in a race at the end of the summer, this means you’ve identified your goal or the outcome you want – To run a longer race!
Now that you’ve identified the outcome, you need to decide what you need to change about your training to run further, this is Step 1 – Identify what you want to change with your training.
Do you need to run more frequently? Run faster? Do more hills? Start a strength training workout. What is the behaviour that you need to change that will make you further for the race? In this case behaviour is the running program you follow, how do you need to change that? Once you’ve decided what that is then you can shift to Step 2 – Identify the behaviours associated with it.
Let’s take our running example a little further and say you’ve decided you run 4 times a week already and you do hills and intervals, but never go for more than 5km. You decide one day a week you’re going to run further by adding half a km to your long run every week until the race and you think that will be enough to get you to that 10km outcome you want. Now that you’ve decided to run half a km further one day a week until race day you need to decide what are the actual micro behaviours you need to change to do that, this is Step 3.
This may be as simple as you running out 250m further, turning around and running back, it might mean using google earth and mapping out your route the night before you go or it might mean buying new shoes and getting a running partner that already runs that far. I don’t know because these are the personal things that only you know the answer to. The important part here is that you figure out what they are for you and then do them. And if you find for some reason they aren’t what needs to change reevaluate and try changing something else.
I realize when I lay it out like this, it sounds really simple – and to a certain extent it is. When you clearly define what it is that you want to change, identify the behaviours to change and then do those behaviours it becomes a lot simpler, more clear and more easily manageable, but by no means easy.
