Behavioral
Modification By
Matthew Johnson
What follows are some strategies that are proven effective in assisting
people to make lifestyle related changes. If you are committed
to improving yourself, the following guidelines will help you achieve
your goals.
Strategies to Maximize Personal Effectiveness in Behavior Change
Four Steps to Behavior Change
1. Identify and Specify Behavioral Goals and Objectives
2. Strategic Planning and Personal Contract
3. Develop a Support System for Your Goal
4. Program for Success and Maintenance
1. Identify and Specify Behavioral Goals and Objectives
Clearly defining and writing down your fitness related goals is
proven to increase your likelihood of achievement. Your
goals should be desirable, specific, measurable, and realistic.
Choose Realistically
Another typical reason health programs fail, is because people make
unrealistic and unattainable demands on themselves. Consequently,
people are almost always sure to fall short when they go to extremes.
Therefore, keep your goals simple, realistic and attainable.
Also, you must always be certain to focus on specific behaviors.
For example, saying that you will lose 20 pounds is not a behavior.
Loosing weight is a result of behaviors such as exercising and reducing
your daily calorie intake. Rather than obsessing about your scale
weight, you should focus on the daily behaviors that will lead to
the desired outcomes.
Thus, people that fail to reach their goals usually don't define
them, learn about them or even seriously consider them as believable
or achievable.
2. Explore the Behavior and Formulate a Strategic Plan
Research also concludes that by designing a detailed plan you will
dramatically increase your success rate. For example, a crew can
not construct a building without a detailed plan. Why should you
view your health program any differently?
Baseline
A baseline is a measurement of the existing behavior and noting
when and how often that behavior occurs before treatment.
Examples include, how often and when a person uses tobacco, or eats
high calorie foods, or displays outbursts of anger. The baseline
measurement of the behavior, will helps you set realistic goals
and identify future improvement levels.
Triggers
A trigger is simply anything that causes or increases the likelihood
of a behavior. Therefore, if we know when and what is motivating
a behavior, we can create future interventions by planning alternative
coping mechanisms.
Learn by Looking About Your Past
If you have attempted to change your behavior in the past but have
not succeeded, what exactly went wrong? What will be different
this time? Therefore, when you previously tried to reach a goal,
you should have learned something about yourself and the behavior
which can be applied to your new attempt.
Plan Specifically for Stress Management
Two of the most frequently cited reasons for personal failure is
inadequate time management and/or increased levels of stress.
Changing behavior is hard enough without the additional difficulty
of trying to balance out work, interpersonal relationships, family,
and everyday life situations. Unfortunately, when things get stressful,
people often relapse back to their old unhealthy behavior's.
Knowing this ahead of time, you must plan and prepare strategies
for such future events.
3. Develop a Support System for Your Resolution
Research concludes that the people who succeed at making lifestyle
changes typically have exceptional support systems. Consequently,
telling others about your goals and objective increases your accountability
to the behavior. From the very start, your should begin by telling
those around you about your fitness program, this way you will increase
your likelihood of success by enlisting greater levels of support. This
contract will not only increase the support of those around you
but it will also makes your commitment public and help to convince
both you and others that you are serious about this change.
As part of the strategy explained above, initiate ways to increase
the involvement of others in your efforts. For example, you
could always lure a friend into joining and committing to a
behavior with you. Having someone to workout with or quit chewing
tobacco can drastically boost your success rate. No matter if it
a spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, roommate, co- worker, or even an
acquaintance, being accountable to someone other than yourself will
help to keep you on track.
4. The Program for Success and Maintenance
With any new venture or attempt it is imperative to have the right
mental attitude. For instance, winners always have the mindset that
their goals are possible and within reach. Not everyone has
this positive outlook, but it can be improved through both positive
self-talk and visualization. Thus, you must visualize yourself
already achieving your new lifestyle.You must develop a mental image
of who you want to become and then act as if you are that person. See
yourself as a non-smoker, as a fit - healthy person, as an emotionally
pleased human being.
Reward Yourself Frequently
Starting a exercise regimen can be physically and mentally draining,
with few immediate results. An effective coping method would
be to link an alternate activity that you find personally rewarding
with your exercises. Therefore, you should find something to
look forward to that can be combined or achieved with your exercise
program. Choose something that makes you feel intrinsically
great about your exercise commitment and you will increase you chances
of success. Whether it is a deserving massage, hot tub, or
a satisfying healthy meal, your behavior needs reinforcement so
you can feel good about your effort.
Provide a Visual Record
Another way to increase your success and motivation is to keep a
visual record of your accomplishments. This can be done by
simply writing on a calendar or using a daily progress chart. Although,
most people today choose to track their achievements and setbacks
by writing in a daily journal. The journal works because it
further holds you accountable to your daily behaviors. Therefore,
if you write about your efforts, then you are more likely to follow
through on your goals.
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Matthew Johnson is a personal trainer and an on-line fitness consultant at Changing Shape. |
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