Key Messages
Learn How To Make Resolutions That Stick: The Best Research On Tap For Forming Good Habits
One way to make sure that New Year’s resolutions don’t easily fall apart is to understand the way your mind works and learn how to trick yourself into following through on your commitments.
Stick with It Book Summary explores this concept and provides us with excellent research as well as techniques we can use to create good habits and follow our goals.
From Weight Watchers techniques to neurohacks and life hacks, Stick with It will provide you with the tools needed to successfully make the changes you want in your life.
Plus, the book covers how PTSD therapy can help break bad habits, taking a deeper look at bad behaviors and offering guidance on making lasting improvements.
If you’re serious about sticking to your New Year’s resolutions, then take advantage of this comprehensive book summary.
Learn new strategies, get inspired by innovative solutions, develop better habits, and start seeing results!
The Secret To Achieving Your Goals: Break Down Tasks Into Smaller Steps, Goals, And Dreams
If you’re looking for more motivation to reach your goals, breaking down your dreams into manageable steps is the way to go.
That’s because focusing on small steps and short-term objectives, as opposed to giant leaps or long-term ones, gives us a greater chance of success.
A study conducted in 2012 on 126 overweight women trying to lose weight illustrates this point perfectly; those who focused and succeeded in reaching their daily dietary goals were more likely to lose weight while those who swallowed their long-term aims ended up gaining.
This is because our brains give out rewards in the form of dopamine when we anticipate a reward–like the pleasure of being able to tick off a completed step–and it’s more rewarding and motivates us better than aiming for some distant goal.
So, if you want to ensure that you stay motivated and on track with your plans and goals, consider breaking them down into three separate categories: steps (which take two days or less), goals (short-term ones which should be accomplished within a week and longer-term ones which require around a month) and dreams (ultimate schemes that need three months or more).
By working towards these mini milestones on the path towards achieving what you really want, it will be much easier to stay motivated!
Get Support From Your Fellow Goal-Setters To Reach Your Dreams With Great Results
The key to achieving long-term success is to surround yourself with a supportive community of like-minded individuals.
Not only do these people provide the encouragement and push you need, but they also create a sense of safety and trust that can help empower you on the road to success.
Research has proven just how effective these kinds of communities can be for those striving towards a common goal.
Organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Weight Watchers, and CrossFit are excellent examples of what can be accomplished when individuals unite their efforts together.
Such initiatives create a powerful ‘social magnet’ effect, making it much less likely that members will abandon their shared goals due to lack of motivation or support.
The power of these groups does not have to be limited to physical ones either.
The author helped create HOPE, an online forum for men at risk for HIV infection in order to offer them a safe platform and anonymous atmosphere where they could count on mentorship and knowledgeable guidance when reached out or expressed concerns they needed help with.
As it turns out, membership in HOPE was shown to have doubled the likelihood of members getting tested within 15 months – 82% retention rate – which speaks volumes about its effectiveness in providing psychological support, camaraderie and motivation that are crucial when it comes reaching desired outcomes.
Ultimately, if you want true stick-with-it results, making sure you find a supportive community full of like-minded individuals who can back you up is essential along the way.
How Social Interaction, Health Awareness, And Visualization Help Us Reach Our Goals
When looking to reach your goals, one helpful practice is to take advantage of human nature.
There are several needs that everybody has that can greatly influence our behavior, such as those for food, shelter, and sleep.
But there are also other needs like social interaction and staying healthy that should not be overlooked.
One example of this is when it comes to making New Year’s resolutions – specifically the popular resolution to quit smoking.
Studies have shown that smokers are far more likely to commit when given specific details about how their lungs can get damaged from smoking instead of a more general warning about their health.
In other words, motivation increases when things are put in a relevant personal context.
This same principle applies within Dr Hal Hershfield’s research on changes in people’s long-term behaviors.
He presented two groups with photos – either current photos or digitally altered ones depicting them as older, frailer versions of themselves in the future.
By doing so, he demonstrated how making information relatable to ourselves can help inspire us to make better decisions; in this case, increasing retirement savings!
By understanding both our physical and psychological needs, we can use them to our advantage and reach our goals with ease!
Take Advantage Of The “Path Of Least Resistance” To Reach Your Goals
When it comes to achieving your goals, don’t be afraid to make small changes that can greatly increase the likelihood of sticking with your goal.
These can be as simple as removing unnecessary obstacles.
For instance, if your goal is to improve your diet, by getting rid of junk food from the home environment you will no longer be tested by having unhealthy food within easy reach.
The same applies to trying to quit something like smoking—a study of smokers revealed those who got rid of all tobacco products at home were more likely to quit.
It’s also essential to have a clear direction and road map for achieving success.
A research conducted at Yale University showed that providing detailed information on how to get somewhere or what steps are needed is more effective than just giving out general instructions.
Those who had concrete steps were more likely to go get a tetanus shot than those who didn’t have instructions on how to do so.
By making simple changes in the environment and focussing on having a clear direction while striving towards a goal, we are better equipped to stay on track and achieve our objectives.
Harness The Power Of Behavioral Neurohacking To Achieve Your Goals
Stick with It by Neil Fiore explains the idea of neurohacking and how it can be used to stay motivated and overcome obstacles.
The book explains that by taking certain actions, you can actually change your thoughts and behaviors.
For example, a study conducted in 1982 found that when heterosexual men felt insecure and socially awkward around women, those feelings decreased after conversations with the opposite sex.
This demonstrates the power of confronting underlying emotions head on.
Additionally, your choice of words can be reflective of how you think and act.
A 2011 survey found higher voting rates when people were asked “how important is it for you to be a voter” rather than “how important is it for you to vote?” So using identifiers like “runner” instead of just “someone who runs” has a positive effect on one’s motivation.
Overall, developing an understanding of neurohacking means being intentional about our habits as we set out to accomplish new goals – taking action to counteract unwanted thoughts or feeling so we stay motivated and achieve success.
Rewards Should Be Used Carefully To Motivate People In The Long Term
When it comes to motivating ourselves, both fear and rewards have been used in an attempt to change behaviors or educate people.
However, research has shown that fear-based motivation can only last for a short time, while reward-based motivation can be more effective in the long run.
When it comes to stick with it methods, you want to avoid relying solely on rewards as a way to achieve your goals.
Rewards can provide some temporary motivation, but in the end, they won’t hold your interest or provide sustained motivation.
Studies done at Colorado state prisons and independent scholar Alfie Kohn’s famous study both showed that rewards were not as big of motivators as simple goal setting and workplace training.
In other words, when working towards something important to you, forget about external rewards – the ultimate reward is feeling accomplished after reaching a difficult goal!
Instead of being motivated by fear or external incentives, focus on striving for personal growth and bettering yourself.
This will help ensure that you progress sustainably towards whatever dreams or goals you have set for yourself!
Replacing Bad Habits With Good Ones: How To Change Your Mind Through Meditation
The secret to getting rid of bad habits is simple: replace them with positive ones.
It’s not as easy as going out and purchasing a new toaster but, it can be done if you understand the process in which a habit forms in the first place.
Basically, your brain becomes conditioned to certain behaviors that you repeat often and eventually turns them into habits.
When this happens, they become practically automatic and don’t require much effort or thought to complete.
That’s why it’s important to focus on forming good habits like eating healthy and exercising–through repetition of these activities, they’ll soon become easier and more instinctive.
Sometimes even understanding how a habit works isn’t enough when dealing with particularly challenging or debilitating ones like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
For example, the story of David George–an American infantryman in Iraq who suffered from flashbacks after witnessing traumatic events–illustrates the difficulty people have changing behavior patterns conditioned over time.
But eventually he was able to overcome his PTSD through meditation practice made up of repetition of mindful moments throughout his day—a perfect example of replacing one negative habit with a beneficial one.
So, if you’re looking for ways to break free from unwanted behaviors try exchanging them with positive ones instead.
You just might find yourself better off in the long run.
3 Techniques For Achieving Your Goals: Automatic, Burning, And Common Behaviors
When it comes to bad behavior, we often find ourselves engaging in acts that we would rather not be doing.
Fortunately, Stick with It provides insight on three categories of unwanted behavior and how to deal with them.
The first type is automatic behavior, which are habits and patterns of behavior we engage in without conscious awareness.
These actions may include nail-biting or mindless snacking.
To break these habits, the best course of action is to remove any temptations that lead you to revert back to these behaviors and replace them with positive new ones.
The second category is burning behaviors which are caused by certain impulses or unquenchable urges like frequently checking our phones.
Eliminating certain elements from your environment that trigger the compulsion and replacing them with more beneficial activities can help reduce their frequency.
The third type identified is common conscious behavior like not getting enough exercise, for which changes can be supported through a supportive community that shares the same objectives as you.
Having a group of people who encourage you and keeping yourself accountable will make it easier to stick to any set goals or targets.
In short, Stick With It outlines an array of strategies to overcome any negative behaviour and add success into our lives by harnessing its potential!
Wrap Up
“Stick with It” is a book devoted to helping people achieve their goals and break away from bad habits.
Through research and neurohacks, the author reveals strategies on how to reach your goals by breaking them down into smaller actionable steps.
Further, being surrounded by a supportive community is also key in keeping yourself motivated and accountable to the commitments you have made.
Finally, improvisation classes or jazz lessons are beneficial for learning how to better navigate changes and be more comfortable when staying in the present moment.
In conclusion, “Stick with It” highlights how breaking up your goals into manageable steps, surrounding yourself with supportive people, and learning proper neurohacks can help you stay focused in achieving what it is that you want.
