New Year. Is this me?
Goal Setting and Behavior change science
To start: To be incredible at anything you need mot than a blind grind. Those who say “If you aren’t succeeding it is because you are not trying hard enough” are using it as a marketing tactic and so the person telling you can feel better about themselves. It is more for them than for you. Hard work is necessary, but that is not all. The top of anything has a support system under it
I choose to write about this because it is such a SATURATED topic and the ones that seem to be the most popular completely miss the point. They often say “no one will do it for you” and “you have to want it”. Well true, but that does not do much for you. This will be repetitive. This is useless if you don't actually do it. A way to support doing it is to understand it and remember it. So I go over this topic through different lenses and systems. Let's do it.
Reminder: You are good enough. You are simply using the tools you have available to change your life to where you want it. Don't ignore your emotions, try to use them to guide this process.
45% of decisions are habits that are more automated for ease. This comes back to environmental cues to that trigger habits associated. The habit loop.
I interpret this graph to support the idea that a mix of intrinsic desire and external support is necessary for success. We need a sense of autonomy and an environment that allows for that. You have to actually want the result and it helps to have support
This quote being from a different paper also lends to that conclusion (cited below)
“Results: Focusing on superordinate and subordinate goals increased the amount of effort invested in goal pursuit. A group difference was found only between the group focusing on both goal types and the group focusing on a superordinate goal. No statement could be made about intentions for further goal pursuit and processes by which goal type affects goal pursuit.”
Simply put deciding ahead of time the what you want and why you want it will help you stay consistent and the how.
Steps: used in design thinking under the COM-B model. Use this in setting up your goal hierarchy.
Define- Targets/ Goals
Negotiate with yourself or your client on what you really want out of this process (not what you think you should do) This will be important for developing your goal hierarchy
Conduct- Analyze what variable/habits or environments makes this behavior harder or easier to do
Identify- Interventions/ functions choose what variables are most important to implement and are reasonable for that person and be clear with yourself or your client on what each change does so they know why they are doing it
Determine- design/ features
Develop and write down a neat and finished product of a map or list, whatever best reminds and connects you long term goals, with the specific tasks you have to do to be most likely to get there.
To change what you do long term, you have to understand why you do it.
Design engaging changes to buffer mental resistance.
The goal of this is to use evidence based topics to map out how your brain interacts with your life. Learning the code so you know what inputs to change to get the desired functions. I don’t code so sorry if you do and that analogy is not so analogous. This might be a bit messy but I hope it will be a good resource.
Why start in the new year?
Temporal land marks, which are significant points in time that can help create cognitive separation from the past and support a Fresh start effect and thereby improve self efficacy… Believing in “new year new me” doesn't have to be cheesy. It is simply a convenient time in our calendar when you have less barriers associated with holidays or work scrambling to have a good 4th quarter or finals for your college classes. This is a good time to build a habit and allow it time to grow roots into your schedule so that way when busy times come that habit is exactly that, a habit and it now has more staying power and resilience.
Goal Hierarchy. This is where you sit down and probably write some stuff
Superordinate goal- Something that is not an action but a goal that you would want for yourself and associate it with in a positive way (You want to be strong or healthy or prepare for retirement. None of these can be a behavior or habit and that is ok. We use this to continue to drive in the direction of what we truly want in life.This compass will allow us some flexibility because there are many ways to get to the same destination but sometimes the “best way” has 45 mins of traffic that day. We want to avoid univariate thinking because then our mood or self efficacy is at the will of our changing environment and if we can achieve checking off a box for one specific action. Ask yourself why during this selection process.
Intermediate goal- These are more trackable, something you can measure. These are actionable. Saving money, working out, eating vegetables. When choosing these behaviors we want to choose ones that effectively take us in the direction of our “compass” or superordinate goal but also fit well in our lifestyle or environment. If you have a tiny kitchen and share it with 4 people maybe cooking more would not be the direction to take your efforts. You could even simply not like cooking and then itself is enough reason to choose another path.
Subordinate goal- This is where you start to quantify and measure. I will workout 4x a week, I will walk 6k steps per day, I will save 200 dollars a month. Again we use the test of availability.
Now that you've made some decisions see how viable your plan is and consider changing your lower level goals and or adding multiple to give yourself flexibility. A good example would be if your super ordinate goal is to lose weight and your intermediate goal is to eat healthier and then finally your subordinate goal is to eat more vegetables, those all intuitively line up together but say you go to a fair for the day and don't have access to many veggies. That univariate thinking would mean you failed for that day. Maybe you actually did a great job though. You walked a lot that day, had a turkey leg which is pretty fantastic macros and you had a treat but you did not over consume and stopped when you were full. All these behaviors support your actual goal of weight loss. Hopefully this allows you the context to develop a system that lets you keep track of progress but isn't so rigid that when you have to exit your perfectly structured environment you feel powerless.
Com-b model:
use this as a lens to see what factors affect the target behaviors
Capability- Resources/ Environment/ Memory/ Self regulation
Opportunity- Physical or social environment that supports or inhibits that desired behavior. No outside lighting or minimal side walks could limit walking in certain areas.
Motivation
Reflective motivation- How valued is the desired outcome compared to all of the other person's desires. You may care about the goal you set but you care about 20 other things more. Which is fine but be honest with yourself so you are wondering why you are struggling. This comes back to choosing a superordinate goal relevant and important to YOU
Automatic motivation- mental models that structure priorities inherent in a society. The meta narrative that drives what is maybe expected in certain contexts and cultures. A relevant example would be expectation of and in social dining or drinking. These are typically less obvious and may require reflection of experience or taking time to be aware in situations that may cause friction in performing the action that supports your goal
-Behavior -Using these factors and how we feel about them to design an environment and experience that fits us. Treat yourself like water and simply creates system that flows you in the direction you want to go. Say you want to be a lawyer but all your friends hate any time you talk about the topics that interest you, you don’t know any lawyers and you study on a noisy train with no headphones….That is probably not going to work out. More relevant. Your gym is 30 minutes away and you buy food from the store that takes an hour to make. Give yourself options instead of trying to make everything perfect and not being able to meet that standard so you don’t do it at all. Get some cheap crappy dumbbells for your house and find a way to make it fun. Buy easier but still decent food like we talked about earlier.
Below is the way I organize the variables that affect ability to be consistent. This is mostly overlap it is just simplified version of multiple models that I researched.
BEEMR
Barrier- Figure out the things you may be able to smooth out in the process of doing or preparing to do the subordinate task. I personally don't love cooking so I will often buy premade things at the grocery store which are slightly more but still cheaper and can be better suited to your goals more than takeout. I also really like steamfresh bags of veggies because they take 3 min and no dishes. That is what works for me because it is low friction
Environment- People that either have similar or opposing goals and habits
Places that are either structured to support or ignore certain habits
Enjoyment- This creates positive feedback and increases behaviors. Maybe you don't like plain vegetables in a bag so you could get something with some taste like the premade bowls they sell of rice, veggies, chicken and spices. Something else for enjoyment is habit stacking. Taking something you enjoy like your audio book or Starbucks coffee and pairing it with the habit you want to build
Map of levels of tasks- taking the time to emotionally connect your subordinate goal to your superordinate goal. Your why to your what. This also means writing down what habits you are going to use to replace old ones (smokers chew gum) or what habits you are going to pair together to improve adherence. Listening to a podcast on a walk.
Reflect- ask yourself why you want something. Ask what will help. Ask what will get in the way. Be willing to change things along the way. Ask yourself if you are happy with the process, not just the idea of the result.
This section: Awareness of the Habit Loop
Identify your routine/ loop
Experiment with rewards
Isolate the cue
Have a plan. (Not smart goals) although ACE and a lot of others recommend SMART goals.
If you are reading this and you have clients or even with friends and family try to adhere to
“Motivated Interviewing”
Express empathy
Develop discrepancy
Avoid argument
Roll with resistance
Support self-efficacy
These can be for you to ask yourself and build a map in how to navigate your own way to your goals or if you have clients you can ask them and take good notes and guide them.
Simple but effective questions for interviewing and uncovering barriers may be:
Tell me about what it is like for you to do (insert behavior)
What makes it hard for you to do this behavior?
What makes it easier to do this behavior?
Capability Questions (the C in COM-B)
What training would help you with this behavior?
What makes it physically challenging to do this behavior?
A word on Apps and Wearables
Most of the things that attempt to affect behavior change really only try different ways of affecting one variable. Mindfulness apps, whoop, headspace, the health app.
These mostly use awareness to try to constantly remind you of your goal or task in hopes of getting you to do it more frequently. Sometimes they add a little motivation for some people because they are driven by the act of tracking the data and want to get the “highscore”.
Don't rely too much on “small wins” to ignore hating the process. Try to use these concepts to change what you need to make the process more sustainable.
These apps are not bad but alone they are going to leave you with the same uphill battle you may have started with. The sisyphean task of exerting more energy every day to do the thing you think you should do (workout) instead of what you want to do (watch a show). These tools can become great resources when paired with the map that you can design for yourself in different ways as shown in this article. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them via them at nickrogers@toughbodyathletic.com
Topic Terms
Trans theoretical model / Self determination theory / Com-b model / Temporal Landmark/ Habit Loop
Sources
Behavioral Design: Using the COM-B Model of Behavior Change in UX
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/goal-setting/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31232517/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33296385/
https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/dbsr/nih-stage-model-behavioral-intervention-development
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9363348/
https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/temporal-landmarks
ACE CEC: Nutrition Coaching: Changing Habits, Not Diets
ACE CEC: Motivating Older Adults: The Key to Healthy Aging