thoughtful decisions vs decisions made without thought
How difficult is it to change a behavior... a habit? I used to think that it was just a matter of will-power. I felt that a strong-minded person could essentially change any habit, they just needed to make a choice that they wanted to change that behavior.
When looking at health behaviors such as exercising, physical activity, dietary or stress management, I've learned that simply making a single "choice" may not change that behavior. People are just not that one-dimentional to think that by writing a goal on a piece of paper or paying the monthly dues to a gym, a behavior will change.
One of the reasons I think that habits become so difficult to change for people is that many of the decisions we make are done .... without thought. Here's what made me think about this:
The other night I had some time to make dinner. So I decided I wanted to make a Janpanese style soup that I made a while back. I went to the grocery store and got the vegetables and chicken broth that I needed. Then I cut-up, washed and cooked the vegetables, made the soup stalk and cooked the noodles for the soup.
The entire process of shopping, cooking and then eating, really made me think about the food I was going to eat. The dietary choices that I made were thought out. I was very aware of what I wanted to eat and what I ate. How often do I put that much attention into those decisions? Not very many. Here's my evening last night.
I got done training at 6:30pm, drove home in traffic while drinking a soda. Not because I really wanted the soda (see previous post) but because I was hungry and it was easily available. At home, I was still hungry, but even more tired. So I started eating some snack foods. I am not even sure what snacks I ate, just know I ate them. Then realizing I was eating, I decided to have a pizza. So I put in the ready-to-bake pizza and 20 minutes later, I started watching the Kentucky basketball game while eating. There was no thought put forth. I was hungry, so I ate. Conviently.
My point is that many times we make choices / goals to change a habit. Yet, we don't make the choices that are needed to support that goal. Using my example of cooking and unconcious eating.... if I wanted to improve my dietary habits, maybe a good supporting decision would be to cook a minimum of 4 times a week. That decision alone would require that I make the time to cook and then become aware of the cooking process.
Which leads me into another (maybe more important) thought. When the "process" is enjoyable then the outcome sometimes doesn't matter. This can be said about a lot of things... maybe a good start to another entry?
When looking at health behaviors such as exercising, physical activity, dietary or stress management, I've learned that simply making a single "choice" may not change that behavior. People are just not that one-dimentional to think that by writing a goal on a piece of paper or paying the monthly dues to a gym, a behavior will change.
One of the reasons I think that habits become so difficult to change for people is that many of the decisions we make are done .... without thought. Here's what made me think about this:
The other night I had some time to make dinner. So I decided I wanted to make a Janpanese style soup that I made a while back. I went to the grocery store and got the vegetables and chicken broth that I needed. Then I cut-up, washed and cooked the vegetables, made the soup stalk and cooked the noodles for the soup.
The entire process of shopping, cooking and then eating, really made me think about the food I was going to eat. The dietary choices that I made were thought out. I was very aware of what I wanted to eat and what I ate. How often do I put that much attention into those decisions? Not very many. Here's my evening last night.
I got done training at 6:30pm, drove home in traffic while drinking a soda. Not because I really wanted the soda (see previous post) but because I was hungry and it was easily available. At home, I was still hungry, but even more tired. So I started eating some snack foods. I am not even sure what snacks I ate, just know I ate them. Then realizing I was eating, I decided to have a pizza. So I put in the ready-to-bake pizza and 20 minutes later, I started watching the Kentucky basketball game while eating. There was no thought put forth. I was hungry, so I ate. Conviently.
My point is that many times we make choices / goals to change a habit. Yet, we don't make the choices that are needed to support that goal. Using my example of cooking and unconcious eating.... if I wanted to improve my dietary habits, maybe a good supporting decision would be to cook a minimum of 4 times a week. That decision alone would require that I make the time to cook and then become aware of the cooking process.
Which leads me into another (maybe more important) thought. When the "process" is enjoyable then the outcome sometimes doesn't matter. This can be said about a lot of things... maybe a good start to another entry?
posted by gary at 10:33 AM
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