Hey Team,
Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to make a chocolate cake for my youngest son. There was no specific reason to make a cake yesterday but the idea popped into my head and I planned to bake the cake around 11am.
But then my morning went awry and I couldn’t bake at 11.
At that point, the rest of my day felt pretty flexible so I didn’t cross ‘make cake’ off of my mental to do list, I just thought I would get to it later.
Yesterday afternoon, one of my projects started really coming together so I decided to follow where that was leading and then suddenly it was 5pm.
If I started baking at that point, it was going to delay supper and since I had to leave at 7pm for Taekwon-Do, delaying supper was out of the question.
I almost decided to put the baking off until tomorrow (i.e. today) because I am often tired after TKD but then I had this sudden mental picture of myself coming home and turning on the oven to preheat before changing out of my dobok.
That imagined moment changed baking from something I “might do if I felt like it” into something I was going to start as soon as I got home last night.*
When I got home and took off my boots, I went right to the kitchen to turn on the oven and then take down my big mixing bowl before going upstairs to change. It felt practically automatic, like it was something I do every week after TKD.
It made me wonder two things:
- What kind of relatively-easy tasks could I do on a regular basis after TKD?
- Can I turn this experience into a Go Team post?
I haven’t fully answered the first question yet but I have a few things in mind. I like the idea of reclaiming that time, giving my evening a bit more structure, and choosing something interesting/fun/helpful to do. I’m not trying to be more productive with that time but I would like to spend it more enjoyably.
Oh, and obviously the answer to the second question is yes. 😉
So, Team, now I am wondering how you can put your imagination to good use for your habit-building.
When is the next time you are going to do something related to the habit you are trying to build?
Is there something going on right beforehand that you can imagine yourself finishing before you start your habit-related task? (Or can you set a timer so you can say ‘When the timer goes off, I will…’)
Where will you be?
What will you be wearing? (Or can you choose something specific to put on?)
Who will you be with?
What will the light be like?
What sounds will you hear? (Can you choose specific music maybe?)
Will there be any particular smells at that time and place? (hopefully good ones!)
It’s fine if you can only think of some of these details. (My baking last night hinged on coming home and reaching for the button on the stove while I was still wearing my dobok.) You can choose which ones to focus on or you can create a whole picture for yourself to help your task feel possible, to help it feel like something that you can actually do.
And if you are one of those people who don’t have a ‘mind’s eye’ and you can’t visualize your future self doing something, perhaps you can employ a different technique to accomplish the same thing.
If your imagination isn’t visual, what does it involve? Is it text or sound-based? Could you write out these things to help them feel possible? Could you describe them aloud? Would it be possible for you to get someone to take a picture of you doing a habit-related task so you could look at that picture when considering when to do that task in the future?
Really, whether you can picture your future self or not, the key is in finding the details that help you change your task from something that you might do into something that you will do at a certain time or in a certain place or under certain conditions. Anything that makes that possible is helpful.
Here’s a gold star for your efforts today, whether those efforts are imagination-related or not.
And, as always, I am wishing you ease.
PS – Obviously, you can use this imagination business to get yourself started on anything you want to do in the future whether you are building a new habit or just trying to get a chance to read your book.
*I’m not pretending that I invented this approach, last night was just a REALLY clear example of a time when this worked for me. It has been used in all kinds of contexts before and I have referenced it, and my tendency to mentally rehearse future events, before as well. The specific reference I’m thinking of involves a group of students who were asked to do a specific assignment over their holidays. One half of the the group was asked to decide a specific time and place when they would complete the assignment. They were encouraged to create as vivid a mental picture as they possibly could. The second half of the group were left to their own devices. The ‘vivid mental picture’ group were far more successful in completing the assignment. I don’t remember the specific details but the researchers determined that something about the vivid picture the students created made the task more doable and helped them switch from holiday mode to work mode and back.
