I decided to lose a few pounds in 2012. It’s not a New Year’s resolution and I’m not in a hurry. I’ve studied the psychology of weight loss enough to understand it’s not a good idea to lose too much weight quickly. Rapid weight loss is often interpreted by your nervous system as starvation. And your nervous system has a plethora of tricks up its sleeve to encourage you to not only eat but to binge eat to respond to such a situation.
Anyhow, in the process of setting up my plan to lose weight, I ran across an idea that will help you reverse any form of unwanted behavior – including behavior that might be limiting your business success.
I began my weight loss process by reading The Beck Diet Solution
One of the first things Beck suggests is carefully thinking through the specific benefits you hope to achieve and writing these benefits on a 3-by-5 index card. Then you develop your eating plan (you can use any plan you prefer). In addition to randomly reading the index card several times a day, you read it every time you have the urge to eat something that is not in agreement with your plan.
If you have read my posts for a while, you might recall that last year I discussed something called If-Then strategies. Rather than declaring you are going to change behavior and hoping for the best, you identify a triggering event (the “If” part of the strategy) and predetermine a response to the triggering event (the “Then” part of the strategy).
Basically, using an index card I set up a very simple If-Then strategy to help me move toward a healthier lifestyle. In my case, if I want to eat something not in agreement with my plan (the triggering event), then I pull out the index card and read the benefits of losing weight (the predetermined response). So far, I find the think-about-food-but-read-the-index-card-instead strategy to be extremely effective.
For years, I have promoted the 3-by-5 index card as one of the most powerful productivity tools available. If you have read my productivity books or attended my classes, you know I rely heavily on this 15-square-inch tool.
Try using a strategy similar to my diet plan to alter one of your unproductive work habits this week. For example, record on an index card the benefits of staying totally focused on your No. 1 priority for a defined period of time every day. Then block out at least one hour a day for the next week to totally focus on your top priority. If – during the blocked out time you are tempted to answer the phone, check emails, check Facebook or do anything else, then – pick up the card and read it instead.
Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.
Smart Stuff 4 Work is written by Chris Crouch. Chris has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive and is the author of several books on the topic including Getting More Done
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