Part 4: Your one thing for 2022 – Prep your environment, don’t fight it
January has come and gone, but still the year is only getting started. As you know we’ve been looking at the following question over the last three weeks:
“What one thing, if you were to gain a handle on it, would make a meaningful difference to the quality of your life at the end of 2022?”
If you are joining for the first time this week, the context of these discussions is around focus, traction and lasting change. Many of us start the year with great intentions, but often when things get busy and go back to normal, we forget about all the things we wanted to achieve, learn or do differently this year. We fall into old habits. And often we beat ourselves up and feel the shame of “just not having enough willpower”.
But what if your “lack of willpower or motivation” wasn’t the problem?
Here’s an extreme example to get you thinking:
Why is it so hard for recovering alcoholics or drug addicts to stay sober once they leave the rehabilitation facility? Is it because they don’t want to change? This is unlikely to be the reason in every case. A more likely reason is that they go from the rehab facility (which is free from the temptations of drugs and alcohol) back to the environment where they got into trouble in the first place. A recovering addict, living in an environment where substance abuse is the norm is going to struggle to stay clean. Not because of a lack of motivation, but simply because sliding into old habits is so easy.
The tip of the week is this: If you want to make a change that sticks, change (even a small bit of) your environment.
Some examples to help you get started:
Want to spend less time on your phone? Leave your phone in another room to charge overnight.
Get to sleep earlier? Take the TV and laptop out of your room.
Improve your health or get fitter? Join a club or group where people are already fit and healthy to keep you accountable.
Read more? Leave books around the house where they are easy to reach and start reading.
Eat more fruit? Put the apples on the kitchen table instead of in the bottom drawer of the fridge. And leave the chips and chuckles at Woolies – don’t buy it!
There’s an endless list of possible example and even if we didn’t mention yours, don’t get discouraged. The principle is the same: instead of relying solely on your willpower to do your one thing, rather make small, necessary and related changes to your environment to make change more visible and likely to stick.
We would love to hear what your one thing for 2022 is and how your progress is going. Why not get in touch at hello@purposeworks.co.za and share your thoughts?
Next week we will continue this series to make sure our momentum sticks past Valentine’s Day.
In the meantime, thank you for reading and ending your week on a high.
At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
