Changeology Step 2: Planning Before Leaping contains a lot of information. These are the tops of the waves. Read the book yourself to get the full effect.
Norcross’s planning skills include:
- Defining your goals specifically.
- Tracking progress some more,
- Assembling your change team,
- Solidifying your commitment, and
- Finalizing your action plan.
But, Norcross cautions us, do not plan to the level of dysfunctional perfectionism.
The best way to define a plan is to begin with the end and mind and make your goal a SMART goal. One that is:
- Specific,
- Measurable,
- Attainable,
- Relevant, and
- Time-specific.
You need to plan the series of small steps that comprise your larger specific goal. Norcross gives several examples to show this factor. Suffice it to say, you can’t just set the goal of losing weight and say you have done all the planning you need to do. You must include the steps of keeping a food diary, planning a nutritional plan, planning a “body movement” plan (I hate mandatory exercise myself), etc.
While you initially tracked your progress as part of getting psyched in step 1, you need to continue to track what you do in order to effect the change you ultimately desire. In Step 2 – The Planning Stage, however, you are going to begin to analyze that data and understand the “why” part of your undesired behaviors by recognizing the various triggers of that behavior. Do you smoke or eat when stressed? Etc.
Norcross gives you four factors to consider about your behaviors:
- Time of day
- Triggers – both situational and emotional
- Behavior – in terms of magnitude or amount of the problem behavior
- Consequences – both the short term and long term ones
Analyzing these four factors should reveal to you that:
- Your undesired behavior is predictable and capable of control and elimination, and
- Your undesired behavior is subject to reactivity, i.e. the more you are monitoring it, the more it is decreasing, simply because you are paying attention to it.
Like everyone advises you: buddying up almost always increases the effectiveness of your change. So assembling your change team is perfectly placed right smack in the middle of Step 2. Target and recruit supports at home, work, and play; in person and virtually, if appropriate. Avoid naysayers, toxic people, and Eeyores. Shoot all saboteurs on site, if need be (but avoidance is probably more legal) Use a formal invitation process to sign team members up. Be specific about what you need from each one of them. Offer reciprocity for anyone who is helping you.
During the planning step, you will need to restate your commitment to change. First, you need to stop ruminating about all the possible ways you can change and actually pick a limited number, say 6, of methods to use for each change catalyst you are using. Second, conserve your energy to fight your change battle. Third, begin stating your goal as a public commitment. Fourth, post your goals and steps for your own rapid reference and reminder purposes. Fifth, like Sol says, “Get to it! Now!” Norcross says, “Propel the virtuous cycle” by starting to change your behavior already; then the motivation will increase. It seldom works better the other way around. Even baby steps are better than mere major motivation without action.
Finally, in the end of Step 2 – Planning, you must:
- Set your launch date,
- Make that launch date a special one,
- Involve your change team in the launch,
- Start strong to last long;
- Learn from your mistakes;
- Develop and use a mantra to motivate yourself; and, finally,
- Write all this plan down.
And we are now 35% through the book, Changelogy.[reminder]Do you have a plan for your next behavioral change?[/reminder]