LAUNCHING NEW BEHAVIORS

Years ago, the famous psychologist William James suggested an approach to changing habits which remains valid today. He recommended that you:

1. Launch the new behavior as strongly as possible.
2. Seize the first opportunity to act on the new behavior.
3. Never let an exception occur until the new behavior is firmly rooted.

Before you can launch a new behavior strongly, you must define what the new behavior is to be. How would your proposed behavior improve upon your present habits? What would you do and how would you do it?
Think of ways to practice the new behavior with gusto. Many people find that publicly announcing their new behavior is a strong beginning. Posting signs to remind yourself of the new habit can also be beneficial. At fir st, you'll not feel comfortable at it. To keep yourself going, you may need to remind yourself of the daily benefits you will derive from the new behavior.

It is important not to deviate from your new behavior until it is firmly rooted. There are instances that when a crisis hits, people swing into action automatically, reacting in the way they know best. That is, they fall back on established patterns. If you want your new behavior to take root, you will have to exercise a great deal of discipline.

Some people are too casual in their approach to changing habits. They mistakenly think that change is easy and that's all in your head. You need to uncover things that cue your behavior. Psychologists recognized many years ago that behavior is a response to a stimulus.

Cues are trigger events. When a cue occurs, we respond habitually.Once you recognize the trigger events, you have three ways to approach habit change. You can change the trigger event, change the response to the trigger event, or change both.

Your efforts at self discipline can be improved if you seek ways to manipulate your environment to reinforce the new behavior. For instance, suppose you are a heavy smoker and want to stop smoking. One way to put yourself in a supportive environment would be to take a wilderness vacation for two weeks with nonsmokers. Under these conditions, it will be much easier for you to stop smoking. You should be well launched into your new pattern of not smoking. You must safeguard your smoke free status, however, because the old cues in your environment will continue to have power over you. But with a strong start you're more likely to continue.