I got an email this morning from a PR person for BecomeAnEx.org, a site created by the (American) National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation. This involves states, public health organizations such as the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society, and other organizations which are interested in promoting smoking cessation.
Now, the PR person concerned had presumably found my recent posts on smoking cessation via Google Blog Search or something like it. The email was a bit polished, although she’d made some attempt at personalization. The site is polished too – it’s a Flash site, which as a web developer myself I don’t love for a variety of reasons, mainly to do with lack of accessibility for people with disabilities and the inability to do standard Web things like deep link within the site and copy text.
The content, though, is good, and what is good about it primarily is that it encourages people who want to change their lives to make a plan.
I remember hearing or reading somewhere – unfortunately, I don’t have the reference – that salespeople who have a process that they follow will consistently outperform those who don’t, pretty much regardless of what the process actually is. The value of a plan and a process is that it makes you think about what you’re doing, makes you concentrate on it, makes you pay attention – and as I’ve said before, paying attention is the number one technique you need to change your life.
Want to lose weight? Do the numbers. My Eat as if you were the weight you want to be post is a worked example of figuring out a plan.
Want to exercise more? You are definitely going to need a plan. What exercises? When? How much? What equipment are you going to need? If your exercise involves being outside, what’s your plan if the weather’s unattractive (whatever unattractive weather is where you live)?
Want to stop smoking? BecomeAnEx has it right: by drawing up a plan and actually thinking about what you do – what triggers you to smoke, why you smoke, what resources you have – you greatly improve your chances of stopping. On my Smokefree for Life recording (part of the Healthy Lifestyle CD) I approach the same thing in slightly different words as I give a posthypnotic suggestion, to be triggered off any time you find yourself reaching for a cigarette. My suggestion is to think to yourself: What am I doing? Why am I doing this? How can I deal with it better?
As a hypnotherapist I naturally tend to approach people’s problems from the angle of their thinking (which includes emotions and desires). The reason you don’t change your behavior is because of the way you think, and by thinking about how you think you can start to get some leverage to change what you do.
So, write down what you do and what you want to do. Then look for ways to get from here to there. It’s a lot harder to travel if you don’t have a map.
Update: Just after I’d posted this I came across the Habitizer, a simple online tracker for whatever habit you want to cultivate or get rid of. Paired with the Motivaider to remind you regularly and a well-thought-out plan, this would take you a long way towards your change goals.
Technorati Tags: smoking, smoking cessation, quit smoking, behavior therapy, behavior change, planning, attention, awareness, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, exercise, life change, personal change, cognitive behavioral
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