Hey guys, listeners, readers and leaders, welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your executive coach 360 partner in change leadership, change management and changing your own behavior so you could evolve, grow, create better life experience for yourself and more positive impact in the world. Yesterday I had two amazing podcast recordings with applied behavioral scientists who spend quite a lot of time in business world helping businesses to shape behavior externally, for customers, for example, and internally for their culture and it made me think about high performance. I think for the first time in my life I realized that high performance is so much less about a person and so much more less about a person, so much more about the environment and the system in which that person operates. And I think the beauty of being a human being is that we can think of the performance or the person we want to become and we can design systems around us to create this outcome Like this is freaking amazing, can you? No other animal can do that Not chimpanzees, no cats, no birds. They're kind of stuck with the environment around them and not only that, they are not very adaptable and just stuck being well-fitted or well-fit for a specific environment and that's why they can't really move freely, whereas we humans, not only can we adapt to the environment really really fast, and our environment starts shaping us internally and externally, whether that's people, environment and just the place where you leave, the culture. So not only we adapt really fast to that, which also has its downsides, but also we can consciously and intentionally shape those environments to make us the people we want to become. Isn't that freaking cool? And today, guys, you're going to learn in small ways which usually end up being quite big things in small ways, how to shape your own behavior, specifically your own habits that sometimes work for you really well and sometimes they don't work for you really well. So by the end of this podcast, you're going to learn how to change your own behavior in so much more effective way, especially when it comes to habitual behaviors which compound, and if they are not working for you, not serving you, they can bring negative results, even when it's a small thing. So let's start with small things. Let's start with small things.
Speaker 1I had this habit for quite a while I would bite or pick my lip with my fingers when I was in deep thought, working on my computer, on something and I would start picking my lip, and not in a cute kind of way, but a bleeding kind of way, and then I would end up with cranky lips and not really able to put lipstick properly, just, and also, I don't know, it just was like kind of like biting your nails Not a good habit to have your nails suffer and you kind of feel not that great and probably there are better ways to manage your thoughts or a little bit of anxiety. You know the main trigger. Well, let me stop here. So the habit. You know that habit of picking my leap, and I couldn't stop for probably like decades until I did something different. First I asked myself like what would a coach with a lot of experience helping other people change their behaviors and habits to achieve their goals? What would that coach advise myself? And I thought, well, I would go to the basics. How do habits work? And I remembered from the work by Charles Duhigg he was the one popularizing it that habits work in this loop.
Speaker 1You have cue or a trigger, something internally or externally that reminds you of certain behavior. That trigger is kind of like push of a button launches an app or a program on your phone or on your computer so that cue, that trigger, launches this program in your brain and then you sort of act on autopilot For me and my leap. Well before we jump into that, charles Duhigg in 2012, he released this book, the Power of Habit why we Do what we Do in Life and Business, which distills complex scientific and psychological research into practical framework for understanding and changing human behavior. Now, charles Duhigg did not invent anything, but he popularized it and made it into a good, actionable framework. The research was actually done like a century before him, in the mid of 20th century.
So cue, action, reward, cue, the trigger can be internal or external. So let's take my lip-picking habit. It had this external trigger. I would sit down in front of my computer and start working a cognitively demanding task which was challenging and produced some anxiety in me, and that was my brain's way of reducing that anxiety and occupying my also body, which I'm usually very active and fidgety. So that was, I guess, also a way for my brain to fidget, to calm myself down and keep working on the important things. Whichever the cue, whatever the exact reason nobody will probably ever find out.
Speaker 1But then there was another thing. This cue internally my lips would be dry and there was some discomfort and that feeling oh, my lips are dry, let me do something about that. With my fingers biting my lip, right Maybe there is a piece of like skin. So that was external and internal trigger. Now I couldn't do much about sitting down working in front of my computer. I did also notice then, when I would work in a co-working space with people around me I would do it less, just because I would monitor myself more and that didn't really look really nice, biting my lip to bleeding. So that was external, so I couldn't change much about that.
Speaker 1But I could change something about this internal cue of my lips being dry, that one and I also could make it more less convenient and more messy. So what I decided to do? I would have either some lip balm or, even better, some bright lipstick and I would put it on my lips often and especially when I feel that my lips are getting dry, and that would make the whole pick in my lip behavior messy and then, you know, my fingers would get greasy. So that wasn't convenient. So I didn't eliminate the trigger, the cue, completely, but I disrupted it. You know, kind of like when you try to play a record or maybe a piece of music and the DJ does like. So that is the pattern interrupter, the trigger interrupter, which did not allow my whole program launch properly, or at least it made it a lot more. It made me a lot more aware of this thing that I was doing. And so almost instantly this whole habit stopped because I A whenever I would feel that trigger, I would sit down in front of my computer and my lips would be dry. I would use that lipstick, and all of a sudden it's all greasy inconvenient If it was bright lipstick. It's also messy, with the potential to look silly, especially if I was in a co-working or just space with people. And so that's how I stopped my lip-picking behavior forever. And now, whenever it reappears, it just proves that long-standing habits never really die. I would use this, you know, put some chopsticks, some lip balm or lipstick, and I always have it with me and plus, my lips get additional moisturizing. So everyone wins.
The point here we often humans, think that by consciously thinking about changing our habits or trying to willpower or discipline our way out of certain behaviors like that is our best bet. We can do it if we just try harder. Where, in reality, what research and science shows us is actually not the case. Changing your environment and interrupting those triggers and cues with some sort of technology like putting lipstick or making it less convenient which we're going to talk about more in a bit it works a lot, a lot better. Another piece of research. So I just finished a book Behavioral Science in the Wild and it's all about what behavioral economics, behavioral research, can do in different arenas, from business to government to health, health to paying taxes, to saving money. And there was a chapter on healthy eating and the chapter was about how to incentivize or promote healthy eating behaviors at scale and they analyzed a bunch of data and research and what they learned is that what works the best is making healthier food a lot more convenient and unhealthy food inconvenient, what it might look like.
Speaker 1With a lot of my clients I tried this and it works so beautifully. One of the examples a client liked pineapples but they failed to eat them a lot and when we dug into that, what I learned is they would buy a whole pineapple and it would sit on their counter, but because you had to peel it before you could eat it, and usually when you're hungry and you usually are short on time and in a rush you wouldn't get to peeling that pineapple because, like, I don't have time and I want to eat now, like what's available. When we decided to just buy pineapples in pieces, cut and ready to eat, and put it in the fridge on the shelf where they can see it and it's right in front. Guess what? On the next call, they ate that pineapple just fine.
Speaker 1Another one somebody trying to eat less ice cream or a particular sweet or particular kind of food, believe it or not leaving it at a store and not going into the aisle where your ice cream is, works a lot, a lot better than trying to willpower yourself to eating less ice cream. Or what research also showed, just buying ice cream in smaller containers. Like, for example, if you struggle to not eat the whole gallon of ice cream, buy that ice cream in small containers. Now you might think, well, it's a little bit more expensive, yes, but you will eat less of it, which makes the whole thing sort of equal. You might spend a little bit more money, but you'll eat less of it and your health wins. So I'd say I take that benefit any time, that benefit any time.
Speaker 1But another one, another insight here. When people were asked what they liked most and what they thought was more effective making food convenient or inconvenient, or giving them more information about healthiness and unhealthiness of food, for example, putting calories upfront on the food or telling with different you know, there is traffic light system like green healthy food, red, eat less of that food People thought that their willpower, their knowledge, their discipline, their decision-making will work a lot better and this additional information, additional nudges in a different way of presenting information, would help them a lot more with making better choices. They also thought that when food in the supermarket, for example, is at your eye level, that also would help a lot and they thought that would be more effective. But research showed again and again and again that that is actually the least effective way of changing anyone's eating behavior. And so now back to you, dear listener.
Speaker 1Where can you, where do you now try changing your behavior, your habits, and you try willpowering yourself out or in it? For example, you might want to start running every morning. Have you tried, as Charles Duhigg, the author of this habit book, who popularized the whole concept, have you tried putting your shoes out in front of your bed so when you wake up you see the shoes, ideally with your whole fitness gear, or maybe even going to bed in your shorts and your t-shirt something very comfortable that you can just run out of the door, or putting your clothes right there by your shoes. So you just put your shoes on, you get this reminder and you can be getting out of the door right away. For Charles, that worked magic. Plus, he created a reward.
The third pillar, or point in the loop, is the reward, which also is very potent in helping you to wire a certain behavior, or removing that reward if you don't want to do that habit any longer, like for me, I guess, with my lip picking behavior. The reward was feeling less anxiety, having my hands occupied with something, so my doubts maybe don't bother my mind so much and I can just dig into work. But then you know, I stopped doing that and I started other things, like breathing more or going for walks when I would feel anxiety, or drinking some nice cup of skinny hot chocolate whenever I would feel a little bit more on edge and not necessarily able to start the work or just dive deeper into my work. Also, listening to music, as I found out, helped a lot, especially Brainfm, which is specifically designed to help your mind stay in focus, especially if you have this mind that tends to sort of jump from one place to another and you need it to focus. What that music specifically does. It gives you additional point of focus which eliminates this distracting thought loop when you just jump all over the place with your thoughts, right. So music is in itself a very rewarding experience for the brain itself. So I changed the reward, I disrupted the cue and almost instantly my habit disappeared.
Speaker 1And Charles Duhigg in his case when he was trying to run, he put his shoes out and his clothing out and then after the run he would reward himself with these amazing smoothies that he absolutely loved. I just recently listened to a podcast with Charles Duhigg where he talked about what changed since he last changed the book and what he talked about as he even more convinced now and does more research and thinking and writing about that. That environment is what drives predominantly our behavior, not research and thinking and writing about that. That environment is what drives predominantly our behavior, not our conscious thinking and decision-making. They say up to 40% of our behaviors are habitual, but even our non-habitual behaviors in most cases are driven by something in our environment, something you see, something that somebody told you, something that you internally feel Like, for example, when you feel stressed, you might turn to eating. Or when somebody tells you something, you start I don't know thinking about watching more TV or whatever that might be. Most of the behaviors in our lives are triggered by our environment, again, whether that's people in our environment, whether that's where we spend our leisure, where we live.
Speaker 1And so a smart human, what a smart human would do to change your own behavior or behavior of people like your kids, your spouses, your friends, your teammates? What a smart human would do is look at the environment and ask themselves and also, don't be shy, use ChatGPT, ask for advice. It's very well versed in this behavior loop theory and practice. So ask ChatG, gpt or whatever AI agent you use, like how can I redesign my environment to help my team, my kids, my spouses to eat certain things or do certain behaviors? So that's what a smart human would do with the knowledge of behavioral science and how habits work. And that's what I said myself, like what would a coach do in this situation, with this leap-peaking behavior? Well, a coach would ask what's the habit, what's the cue, what's the action, what's the reward? And what's in my control? How can I disrupt or redesign that cue and trigger so the behavior, the whole change of behavior, doesn't happen. And I did that and it worked like magic. That's why probably people studied it and put books out there, because it works so well in life and in business. Don't forget that the name of the book by Charles Duhigg is the Power of Habit.
Speaker 1Why we Do what we Do in Life and Business? Because, again, why we do what we do in life, in business? Because, again, at least 40% of our behaviors are habitual and on top of that, our non-habitual behaviors also are triggered by the environment around us. There is a reason why there is a longstanding saying you are, as a human, an average or five people around you or in your reference group. We are also very influenced by our social environment. So also that gives you a clue into leading by example. So be that person in your environment who promotes and inspires and triggers better behaviors in people. You are a part of someone's environment as well. And that's it for today, guys.
I hope you found a lot of insights, you learned a lot of insights and you are eager to apply them, whether it's for changing your own behavior or behavior. So people around you, in your family, in your friendships, in your work environment, please don't forget to share this podcast episode, to send it to someone, one person who might be struggling, or maybe they shared with you. I'm struggling with this habit, not sure how to go about that. Or maybe collectively in your workplace, you are struggling to change some behavior that doesn't really work all that well for you. So share this, listen to this podcast together and then discuss the concept how you can implement that in your family, in your personal life, in your workplace.
Speaker 1Also, brainstorm with Chad GPT and then, instead of again looking at yourself, trying to change yourself, look at the environment, because we humans are changed much better and easier by the things around us. Versus trying to change yourself without changing the environment and expecting the result to last. That seems to be the dumbest approach of all. Thank you, guys, for listening, thank you for tuning in, thank you for your time and attention. Let's together change the world a couple of years at a time. Thank you Until next time. Keep learning, keep improving, keep growing and keep changing.