when we’re trying to change our
behaviors there’s some behaviors that we
want to be experts at and then there’s
some behaviors that we’re perfectly fine
being amateurs at right and and on the
bottom too as well the habituate or the
addict there’s behaviors that we want to
stop doing that are low willpower and
high willpower so it’s not necessarily
the person it’s the behavior they’re
trying to change but I think you know
you’ll find it very difficult to become
an expert at something if if you use the
same criteria that it takes to become an
amateur at something if your test to
become an expert is is this Mia you
actually won’t have the grit and
perseverance needed to power through the
times that are shitty that are hard so
most people’s problems I think when it
comes to the fitness space in particular
is that we train like we’re experts even
though what we want is an amateur
behavior all right we go to the gym and
we have the mentality that we need a
trainer and fitness programs and you
know we need to know gate no pain no
gain and it’s got a hurt or it doesn’t
work and that’s that’s the experts
mentality I’ve written on this article
you alluded to called why fitness apps
make you fat because what we find is
that when you when you take that mindset
in the expert quadrant of you know I’ve
got to figure out the expert quadrant is
all about figuring out your mistakes and
it’s got to be in some way painful in a
way or else you’re not gonna get better
what that means is that people are doing
exercise that they hate which means it’s
not going to be sustainable not only
that we know that that that when you
suffer at something there’s this
phenomenon called moral licensing that
when we feel like we’ve sacrificed in
one area of our lives it’s like
squeezing on a balloon right when we
feel like we’re being good in one area
of our lives we cheat in other areas of
our life right I squeezed on this side
of the blue and the other and we’ve seen
this phenomenon occur time and time
again we find that when people buy green
products they’re actually less kind
though they’re less likely to help
someone who’s just fallen down in front
of them after they’ve sacrificed by
buying an ecologically sound product
some of the highest insurance rates on
the road today are from a car that that
you wouldn’t expect it’s not Ferraris
and Lamborghinis some of the highest
insurance rates are for
Priuses right right because there’s this
effect of more licensing if we’re good
in one area we’re allowed to be bad in
other areas so how does this play out in
the fitness world well I just you know
sweated it out on the treadmill for 30
minutes and I’ve you know it was so
difficult and I you know I I I did it I
I I persevered and it was so hard for me
I didn’t enjoy a second of it
I deserve a Jamba Juice with 60 grams of
sugar and you know 600 calories even
though I only burned what like 300
calories on the treadmill I deserve a
reward and unfortunately I think when
bringing it back to the technology
industry a lot of fitness apps today
only look at that side of the equation
they’re only about getting your step
counts because they’re using the expert
mode as opposed to the amateur level so
we talked about the top of that behavior
change matrix right these do behaviors
that are either low willpower or high
willpower at the bottom of that behavior
change matrix are the don’t behaviors
the things we want to stop doing and so
there again we have low willpower and
high willpower so what I’ve utilized it
in my life is it using a technique I
call progressive extremism progressive
extremism and the idea is that you know
the problem with diets and the reason
that diets make us fat is that they
train our brains to anticipate scarcity
and of course what you’re doing when you
train the brain to do something is that
you’re heightening the awareness you’re
making us you know these diets train us
to expect okay I’m suffering today but
as soon as this diet ends and I’m you
know I can fit into my wedding dress or
the graduation ceremony comes or here’s
my goal by the end of the year I’m gonna
you know be at this weight as soon as I
free myself from that diet and that’s
that’s the problem so instead of saying
you know a diet that has this time-based
end point what I advocate for is
progressive extremism so pick something
that you know you want to stop eating in
this case if food is what word is the
behavior we’re trying to change and the
criteria is pick something that you can
give up without too much trouble but you
can give it up for the rest of your life
why would I want to do something
temporarily and then go back to eating
the way I used to eat that doesn’t make
any sense of course I’m going to gain
the weight I want to
permanent change and so I started out
with my the first thing that I excised
from my life was candy corn and so I
just cut them out and say I’m never
eating candy corn ever again and then
what happened and I kept track I kept
track of everything I gave up and then
maybe a like a week or two later I’d
have cess and say hey that wasn’t so
hard what else could I give up and then
that would give up another thing and
another thing then I think the thing I
gave up was no sugary drinks in the
house okay I can have sugary drinks
outside the house no sugary drinks in
the house ever again for the rest of my
life it’s a rule
progressive extremism so I went up this
chart kind of more and more and more
things that I was giving up until I gave
up you know just last June I gave up
refined sugars completely it’s just not
something I do
now when okay people have no trouble
saying Oh candy corn easy that’s great
but then you say okay I’m gonna give up
all refined sugars and people say oh
that’s not so cool anymore
but of course that’s that’s the natural
progression of what you’re doing here is
you’re using this this this phenomenon
of self-image that when you talked about
self-image earlier and how we can
actually utilize how we see ourselves to
boost our willpower there’s been a lot
of studies that show that when people
identify a behavior that they they do or
don’t do as part of who they are it
becomes much easier to resist for
example if you’re a vegetarian if you’re
a devout Muslim if you’re an Orthodox
Jew you’re not constantly asking
yourself should I eat the meat or should
I have some beer or should I have some
pork right like that’s not a debate
you’re having on a constant basis you
just don’t do that because that’s who
you are
right if I’m a devout Muslim I just
don’t drink that’s just what I do if I’m
a vegetarian I just don’t eat meat it’s
no longer a debate of should I can I is
it okay I just don’t right whereas many
diners they think to themselves well
should I should I not should I have the
cake and what they’re doing is expending
this willpower resource that over time
you know there’s a lot of evidence that
shows becomes depleted and it becomes
very hard this constant struggle but by
doing this progressive extremism and
saying look that’s just one thing I just
don’t eat and taking it slowly I mean
this has
years to scale up you’re constantly
you’re constantly exercising things from
your life from your diet but for the
rest of your life and it’s using that
same principle of this is just who I am
I just don’t eat those things so that
that’s the shift is changing your
mindset oh this is something I just
don’t do versus something I can’t do
which we can’t means well maybe it’s
flexible versus something I just do not do
behaviors there’s some behaviors that we
want to be experts at and then there’s
some behaviors that we’re perfectly fine
being amateurs at right and and on the
bottom too as well the habituate or the
addict there’s behaviors that we want to
stop doing that are low willpower and
high willpower so it’s not necessarily
the person it’s the behavior they’re
trying to change but I think you know
you’ll find it very difficult to become
an expert at something if if you use the
same criteria that it takes to become an
amateur at something if your test to
become an expert is is this Mia you
actually won’t have the grit and
perseverance needed to power through the
times that are shitty that are hard so
most people’s problems I think when it
comes to the fitness space in particular
is that we train like we’re experts even
though what we want is an amateur
behavior all right we go to the gym and
we have the mentality that we need a
trainer and fitness programs and you
know we need to know gate no pain no
gain and it’s got a hurt or it doesn’t
work and that’s that’s the experts
mentality I’ve written on this article
you alluded to called why fitness apps
make you fat because what we find is
that when you when you take that mindset
in the expert quadrant of you know I’ve
got to figure out the expert quadrant is
all about figuring out your mistakes and
it’s got to be in some way painful in a
way or else you’re not gonna get better
what that means is that people are doing
exercise that they hate which means it’s
not going to be sustainable not only
that we know that that that when you
suffer at something there’s this
phenomenon called moral licensing that
when we feel like we’ve sacrificed in
one area of our lives it’s like
squeezing on a balloon right when we
feel like we’re being good in one area
of our lives we cheat in other areas of
our life right I squeezed on this side
of the blue and the other and we’ve seen
this phenomenon occur time and time
again we find that when people buy green
products they’re actually less kind
though they’re less likely to help
someone who’s just fallen down in front
of them after they’ve sacrificed by
buying an ecologically sound product
some of the highest insurance rates on
the road today are from a car that that
you wouldn’t expect it’s not Ferraris
and Lamborghinis some of the highest
insurance rates are for
Priuses right right because there’s this
effect of more licensing if we’re good
in one area we’re allowed to be bad in
other areas so how does this play out in
the fitness world well I just you know
sweated it out on the treadmill for 30
minutes and I’ve you know it was so
difficult and I you know I I I did it I
I I persevered and it was so hard for me
I didn’t enjoy a second of it
I deserve a Jamba Juice with 60 grams of
sugar and you know 600 calories even
though I only burned what like 300
calories on the treadmill I deserve a
reward and unfortunately I think when
bringing it back to the technology
industry a lot of fitness apps today
only look at that side of the equation
they’re only about getting your step
counts because they’re using the expert
mode as opposed to the amateur level so
we talked about the top of that behavior
change matrix right these do behaviors
that are either low willpower or high
willpower at the bottom of that behavior
change matrix are the don’t behaviors
the things we want to stop doing and so
there again we have low willpower and
high willpower so what I’ve utilized it
in my life is it using a technique I
call progressive extremism progressive
extremism and the idea is that you know
the problem with diets and the reason
that diets make us fat is that they
train our brains to anticipate scarcity
and of course what you’re doing when you
train the brain to do something is that
you’re heightening the awareness you’re
making us you know these diets train us
to expect okay I’m suffering today but
as soon as this diet ends and I’m you
know I can fit into my wedding dress or
the graduation ceremony comes or here’s
my goal by the end of the year I’m gonna
you know be at this weight as soon as I
free myself from that diet and that’s
that’s the problem so instead of saying
you know a diet that has this time-based
end point what I advocate for is
progressive extremism so pick something
that you know you want to stop eating in
this case if food is what word is the
behavior we’re trying to change and the
criteria is pick something that you can
give up without too much trouble but you
can give it up for the rest of your life
why would I want to do something
temporarily and then go back to eating
the way I used to eat that doesn’t make
any sense of course I’m going to gain
the weight I want to
permanent change and so I started out
with my the first thing that I excised
from my life was candy corn and so I
just cut them out and say I’m never
eating candy corn ever again and then
what happened and I kept track I kept
track of everything I gave up and then
maybe a like a week or two later I’d
have cess and say hey that wasn’t so
hard what else could I give up and then
that would give up another thing and
another thing then I think the thing I
gave up was no sugary drinks in the
house okay I can have sugary drinks
outside the house no sugary drinks in
the house ever again for the rest of my
life it’s a rule
progressive extremism so I went up this
chart kind of more and more and more
things that I was giving up until I gave
up you know just last June I gave up
refined sugars completely it’s just not
something I do
now when okay people have no trouble
saying Oh candy corn easy that’s great
but then you say okay I’m gonna give up
all refined sugars and people say oh
that’s not so cool anymore
but of course that’s that’s the natural
progression of what you’re doing here is
you’re using this this this phenomenon
of self-image that when you talked about
self-image earlier and how we can
actually utilize how we see ourselves to
boost our willpower there’s been a lot
of studies that show that when people
identify a behavior that they they do or
don’t do as part of who they are it
becomes much easier to resist for
example if you’re a vegetarian if you’re
a devout Muslim if you’re an Orthodox
Jew you’re not constantly asking
yourself should I eat the meat or should
I have some beer or should I have some
pork right like that’s not a debate
you’re having on a constant basis you
just don’t do that because that’s who
you are
right if I’m a devout Muslim I just
don’t drink that’s just what I do if I’m
a vegetarian I just don’t eat meat it’s
no longer a debate of should I can I is
it okay I just don’t right whereas many
diners they think to themselves well
should I should I not should I have the
cake and what they’re doing is expending
this willpower resource that over time
you know there’s a lot of evidence that
shows becomes depleted and it becomes
very hard this constant struggle but by
doing this progressive extremism and
saying look that’s just one thing I just
don’t eat and taking it slowly I mean
this has
years to scale up you’re constantly
you’re constantly exercising things from
your life from your diet but for the
rest of your life and it’s using that
same principle of this is just who I am
I just don’t eat those things so that
that’s the shift is changing your
mindset oh this is something I just
don’t do versus something I can’t do
which we can’t means well maybe it’s
flexible versus something I just do not do
Please follow and like us: