The alarm rings at 4:50 a.m. You press the snooze button and roll
over without opening your eyes. Settling back into your warm bed, you notice how
sweet it is to continue to sleep. The alarm rings again at 5 a.m. and you repeat
the process. This goes on until 6 a.m. when you decide that this will be a non-workout
day.
What’s the Problem?
Why is getting up for your workout such a problem? The problem is
human nature—a compelling instinct or code of life that says: All human
performance is the avoidance of pain or the seeking of comfort. This is what motivates
us.
We are predisposed to recognize our most dangerous and painful threats
and then compelled to avoid them. This instinct does not request our compliance—it
compels it. We are avoidance machines! Because we also have language, we are meaning-making
machines. We give meaning to everything that happens in our lives. It is rare
that we accept things or events as just being. We are constantly flipping from
the past to the future and having a dialogue about what we are experiencing.
Here’s how this works. You have a goal of weight loss. You
intend to wake up at 4:50 a.m. and exercise. You are motivated to do this. You’re
committed. You set the alarm for 4:50 a.m. and go to sleep with the greatest of
intentions.
When the alarm rings at 4:50 a.m., your brain goes through a search
like a computer looking for any link to pain or any threat associated with the
activity. Exercise is hard. You might be tired throughout the day unless you sleep
in. Besides, it’s cold outside and warm in bed. You have found the links
to pain, and you are compelled to avoid. The trigger has already occurred. Then
you have an internal dialogue that rationalizes and justifies your avoidance—and
you don’t even know that you’re doing it.
Rationalization protects you from feeling guilty for not doing what
you said you would do. The method of rationalization is to justify your avoidance.
You start to think that you’re over-training and that an important part
of physical fitness is rest. You pay attention to the pain you have in your back.
You remember the last time you worked out through that pain, your back went out
and you lost several days of production. You count how many days you have already
worked out this week and justify that you can make it up tomorrow.
What’s the Solution?
The solution lies in understanding how the brain works, particularly
the reticular activating system (RAS). The reticular formation is a bundle of
densely packed nerve cells located in the central core of the brainstem, running
from the top of the spinal cord into the middle of the brain and containing nearly
70 percent of the brain’s estimated 200 billion nerve cells.
The reason for this concentration of brainpower is because the RAS
is your front line of defense and survival. The RAS instantly recognizes friend
or foe and starts the necessary physiological and psychological response.
You already have a default program coding the RAS. That coding is
the search and recognition of perceived danger and then the activation of the
survival instinct that compels you to avoid all that you perceive as painful,
threatening, or dangerous.
It doesn’t matter if the threat is real or not. Your perception
is your reality. Rejection from sales calls is not a real threat, and yet that
perception keeps many sales people average as they avoid prospecting calls and
then justify how busy they are. It’s the same process. Your brain does not
differentiate between what is real or imagined. You are an avoidance machine.
The good news is that you can influence what the RAS drives you to
pay attention to. The solution lies in surrendering to the ways of human nature—through
behavioral contracting.
Formula for Excellence
Consider the following formula for excellence through a behavioral
contract: Specific Declarations + Accountability = Elite Performance.
Specifically make a decision about what you want and why. Answer the question,
“Why bother?” Next ask yourself, “What are the actions I need
to take to reach this goal?” Follow that question with, “What actions
will I take over the next seven days?”
Now, you’re almost ready to influence the RAS, but there is
another major part still missing—accountability. Accountability has two
parts. The first part is the check-in, “Did you do what you said you would
do?” This usually must come from another person outside of you.
The check-in is not enough however. You must have the next part of
accountability—an enforceable painful consequence for non-performance.
The consequence is the key. It must be more painful than the perceived
pain embedded within the activity. For example, what is more painful—getting
up early in the morning and exercising or paying $100 to another person if you
don’t? As you’re lying in bed and the alarm rings at 4:50 am, your
brain searches for the highest perceived level of pain. Instantly it notices your
body is warm under the covers, exercise is hard, it would be nice just to hit
the snooze button and sleep in. However, the brain continues to search for the
highest perceived pain. You associate of how painful it would be to pay a fine
of $100 for not getting up and you perceive that as the highest level of pain.
Now, you are compelled to get up and do what you said you would do. You can’t
help it. Human nature is making you avoid the highest level of pain.
This intervention will predispose you to take the action that avoids
the penalty. When you start using behavioral contracting, you will see immediate
results. Apply this to one activity and watch yourself avoid your way to accomplishment. PE
