Video transcription
One of the things I notice about my own practice is that some days it feels hard. Maybe I went to bed later than usual, or didn’t get a great nights sleep and I wake up feeling tired, and lacking in motivation.
One of the things that I have found useful for my practice is to build what I call a Practice Support kit. In simple terms a Practice Support kit is just the simple things you do to help your Grunt keep his or her commitment.
One of the most common tools in my Practice support kit are what are called “Implementation Intentions”. That’s a psychologists fancy way of describing something that is actually very simple. Implementation intentions are just “IF-THEN” plans.
I’ll give you an example of one of them from my Practice support kit. I might wake up and remember that today is a planned exercise day. And on some days literally the next thought I have is some variation of “I don’t really feel like exercising today”. And this is where I pull out one of my Implementation intention tools.
I will consciously choose not to look at that thought. It’s like in my mind I turn my head away from that thought and don’t let myself look at it. And then I just put one step in front of the next and carry on. And before I know it I am exercising. And I make use of this Implementation Intention from quite frequently.
So the “if” part of that plan is IF “when I wake up I have the thought I don’t really feel like exercising today” THEN “turn my attention away from that thought”.
That might absurd to you, and possibly wouldn’t help you at all. But the only thing that matters is that whatever tools you have in your practice support kit work for you.
Building up the tools in your practice support kit helps you to keep your commitment. And it’s the responsibility of the Hacker to do this which just happens to be exactly the sort of problem solving that your Hacker is good at.
Here’s a few Implementation Intention ideas to get you started;
- IF you have a scheduled practice in the morning before breakfast THEN “make sure you get to bed early enough so you have enough sleep”
- IF you are trying to exercise in the morning THEN get your exercise gear ready the night before and put beside the bed so its easily available when you wake up
- IF you are trying to avoid a particular food or drink, THEN don’t have it in the house, and if you do then don’t have it easily visible.
And here’s the mother of all Implementation Intentions.
- IF you are struggling to meet your commitment to your practice THEN schedule to put time aside to get your Hacker on the job.
And ask other people what Implementation Intentions or little life hacks they find helpful. If you google “Implementation intention” you’ll find a whole lot of information and ideas on what you might add into your Practice Support kit. We’ll cover more on this topic in the coming week.