In the last article, I introduced the New Behaviour Strategy Generator and it’s application to weight loss. Today, I’m going to take you through the exercise so you can apply it to your weight loss goals.
The 4 Main Steps Of The New Behaviour Generator Strategy Are:
Step 1. Select a behaviour worth having
A. Identify the wanted behaviour
B. Specify the context
C. Identify your role model
D. Evaluate your role model
Step 2. Replace your role model with yourself and evaluate
Step 3. Associate into manifesting the behaviour
Step 4. Future-pace and test.
While this strategy can be used to make any behavioural changes, we will now look at how you can apply it to weight-loss, health and fitness. The New Behaviour Generator Strategy needs to be first understood, and then applied. In other words, you need to put in the required work to make the desired changes. I will firstly guide you through the procedure, and then you will apply it to your goals.
Step 1. Select a behaviour worth having
- Identify the wanted behaviour
Choose a behaviour you want to be able to do, but have never done before, or one you would like to do better than you are presently doing. Examples would include eating healthy foods, regularly going to the gym and getting 8 hours of quality sleep every night.
- Specify the context
Identify when and where you want to be able to do this behaviour. While you may automatically think “Oh all the time!”, this would be a mistake. No behaviour is appropriate in every context. So be specific as to when it would be most useful to behave in the way you want.
- Identify your role model
Pick somebody who has achieved the weight-loss results you want. It would be best if this person started from the position you are currently in, as opposed to somebody who has been slim, fit and healthy all of his or her life. It is not important that you know this person personally or not. All that matters is that you have some representations of him or her behaving in the way that you want to behave yourself.
- Evaluate role model
Now imagine this person doing the chosen behaviour. The images must be in the form of an imaginary movie, showing your role model demonstrating, in an appropriate context, the behaviour you have chosen. Observe how the person moves. Notice his/her posture, facial expressions, gestures, words he/she commonly uses, voice tone, volume, and tempo.
Once you have done this in vivid detail, have another think as to whether or not you want to behave in this way. Having taken a close look at it, do you still want to adopt this behaviour?
If you decide that you don’t, you need to make some adjustments. If you are unhappy with the role model, then simply choose another more suitable person. If it is the behaviour itself that is unwanted, return to the beginning of the strategy and select another, more suitable behaviour.
If you do want to adopt the behaviour, proceed to the next step.
Step 2. Replace your role model with yourself and evaluate.
Now change the movie you made and replace your role model with yourself. It is as if you are watching a movie of yourself manifesting the same behaviour as your role model. See yourself on the screen, doing all things that he/she does so brilliantly.
Watch how you move. Notice your posture, facial expressions, gestures, words you use, voice tone, volume and tempo. Pay particular attention to the responses of the people around you there on the screen. Take your time doing this part. Make any necessary adjustments and improvements as you move through the movie.
Step 3. Associate into manifesting the behaviour.
Once you can see yourself in the movie, step inside the body of the character on-screen and imagine yourself actually doing the chosen behaviour. See what you would be seeing. Hear what you would hear, including what you’d be saying to yourself. Feel what you would be feeling. Be especially aware of the way your body feels as you perform the new behaviour. Focus on each sensory system separately, and then all of them together.
Step 4. Future-pace and test
Future-pacing is an NLP technique that involves mentally rehearsing oneself through some future situation in order to ensure that the wanted behaviours will happen naturally and appropriately in the suitable contexts.
Think back to a time in the past when you would have liked to have had the behaviour you currently desire. An example might be the ability to eat 4 healthy meals per day, without eating any snacks in between. Imagine how different things would be now if you had consistently displayed this behaviour in the past.
Now imagine a time in the future where you need to behave in the new and improved way. Ask yourself what will be the very first thing you will see, hear, or feel externally in that situation that will remind you of your skills. These will serve as natural and unconscious anchors in the future. For example, you may hear a certain sound that acts as a trigger, enabling you to access the desired behaviour.
Athletes use future-pacing all the time when preparing for competition. A football player will imagine taking his next penalty. He will focus on such factors as the sounds he will hear around him, the self-talk he uses to motivate himself, the feeling of striking the ball smoothly and powerfully, and the way the goal looks so big in front of him, almost inviting him to burst its net.
To use future-pacing in a weight-loss or fitness context, simply apply exactly the same procedure as the one described above. Create vivid and precise sights, sounds and feelings. The more detailed you are, the more “real” they will become. This will make it easy to access the desired behaviour at the appropriate times in the future.
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