The Right Mentality is the Key to Success
In American Culture, January is the time for personal change: making new resolutions, letting go of the past, and looking to the future. While I, too, like to make New Year’s Resolutions (this is the Great 2014, after all), in the Northern Hemisphere, January seems like a poor month for embarking on grand behavior change journeys. Making and keeping new habits is undoubtedly important and worthwhile, but it’s also a challenge – one scientifically proven to use up your stores of self-control (which in turn means you’re less likely to resist that late night candy bar or get started on that paper you’ve been dreading). If changing or adopting a new behavior is so physically and emotionally difficult, given the choice, why burden yourself with the barriers of wintery weather?
Instead, I propose that springtime – aka right now – is the perfect time to give your life a mini-makeover and get active. Even in the far north, the weather is perfect with dazzling sunshine, blooming flowers, and more shades of green than the wildest salad bar. While climate isn’t crucial to achieving your goals or changing a behavior, it is pretty beneficial. Think about it: spring and summer weather makes people happy. Happy people feel more empowered. Empowerment leads to actualization and being physically active. And there you have the synopsis of this article series: four ways to increase feelings of self-empowerment – or self-efficacy, and give you an extra boost to get over any behavior change hump.
Unless you are part of a few select majors, or simply enjoy reading old theories about behavior change, you probably won’t be familiar with the construct of self-efficacy. Introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura in 1980s, self-efficacy is defined as one’s belief in his or her ability to complete a task and/or overcome an obstacle – basically it’s the fraternal twin of self-empowerment and cousin to self-confidence. There are four main power players that impact one’s self-empowerment or self-efficacy: mastery experience, social modeling, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective state. (Those are in the original theory-ese.) For a more modern translation, and advice on how to use these factors to your best advantage, read on.
Mastery Experience
I. Mastery Experience: Getting Back Up On That Bicycle
As a fat, pudgy child (no, that’s not me in the photo) I hated running. Worse, I simply I did not think I was physically capable: I imagined my legs wouldn’t support me, that I would fall down and end up on an episode of House with some rare lung disease aggravated by my futile attempt at exercising. I had a laundry list of woes, but at the top of the list was the fear that I wouldn’t be strong enough to overcome the challenge of running. However, by taking a chance and participating in middle school track, I faced those fears and became a competent runner. Yes, sometimes running hurts, sometimes it’s a challenge, but no matter the obstacles in my path, I know that I can overcome them because I already have successfully done so, and thus “mastered” my aversion to running.
In other words, completing an activity boosts your confidence in being able to do it again. If you’re trying to eat healthier, the first time you choose to eat a plate of veggies over something deep-fat-fried – especially if it was a hard decision – you’ll feel more capable about making that decision again. Succeeding at such a task increases your belief in having the power, or self-efficacy, to keep making good choices and meet your health goals.
Practical Applications
I. If Your Goal is to Start Eating Broccoli – or Any Other New Food – Bite the Bullet and Eat Some.
- Veggie Recommendation: If it will make it a little easier, dress up your veggie of choice with a little low-fat dipping sauce to get you over your initial vega-phobia.
II. Starting a New Workout Regimen: Follow Nike’s lead, and just do it*.
- Start with a push-up. Just one. Show that T-rex what’s up.
III. Cutting Back on Processed Foods or Sweets: Swap it Out
If you want to give up or cut back on processed foods or sugars, look for a healthy substitute to switch to when you’re jonesing for your favorite sugary snack. Mastery experience comes with choosing healthy unprocessed, corn-syrup free as an alternative (See I. for trying new foods).
3 Sugar Food-Swap Examples Include:
- Fruit – not the kind in a can, Jello, or pre-sealed cup.
- Low-fat regular or Greek yogurt (still keep an eye on the sugar count)
- The aforementioned’s natural offspring: a smoothie.
A Final Grain of Salt
- Always be reasonable and use common sense.
- Consult an expert. Pinterest doesn’t count, but your physician, nutritionist, or seasoned physical trainers do.
- Make SMART goals (that’s an acronym, not emphasis); having smaller goals that build to guiding objectives paves the way to personal success, and will provide you with an outline of tasks to include in your Mastery Experience.
And finally, if none of what I just said motivated you to start changing your life today, then I hope this video will: