Ask a thousand people what the most important factor is that makes behavior change stick.
We promise you that 99% of people will tell you it’s motivation, drive, determination, discipline, self-control, etc.
Those are all part of the motivation story. And they are important . . . but they aren’t all.
Crushing bad habits isn’t only a matter of motivation. Motivation is a trait, a feeling, an emotion. Maybe getting motivated is also a skill.
But motivation is not action . . . and action is ultimately what it takes to get things done.
Action is not about feelings, emotions, or traits. It’s about behavior.
What makes breaking bad habits so difficult to overcome for so many people is that they get tunnel vision and think that the cure to their bad habits is motivation. They wring their hands, grind their teeth, agonize and worry trying to find some little shred of motivation which seems so elusive.
And one last problem with motivation: It’s like a muscle. It can poop out!
No matter how big you grow your muscle or fuel motivation, it’s a finite resource that can get depleted and needs to be nourished and replenished. You can’t depend on it as the single key factor over the long haul.
The good news is that with even just a little bit of motivation, you can start moving toward action.
That’s because instead of simply waiting for inspiration to strike or motivation to blossom, you can act . . . and you can do it in a way that is right for you without all the agonizing and teeth gnashing.
You do it by designing behaviors based on a model that makes positive behavior doable.
That’s where our Behavior Design Model comes into play.
It’s a complete and comprehensive model for behavior design.
First, it corrects the big misperception about motivation and puts motivation in its rightful place . . as just one part of the change process.
Then, it defines four key domains and their interrelationships that influence your behavior and that you need to account for to break any bad habit and build the behaviors you want.
But the model does more than that.
It reflects real-world situations and has predictive power.
By making sure you address each of the four domains in the model, the likelihood of your success increases exponentially.
Here is the model in its simplest form.
As we said, the Be Your Own Best Coach Behavior Design Model illustrates the four key domains of your life that you must account for if you want to create successful, sustainable change:
YOU is your intrapersonal life (everything that goes on inside you). It’s all the internal factors that make you who you are and drive you to act the way you do. You is the skills and strengths you already have that give you the ability to express--through your actions--who you are and what you stand for. It’s about your values, purpose, and dreams of where you want to go.
PEOPLE refers to your interpersonal life (all the connections you have with people around you). PEOPLE are your social connections--from your family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances to the guides, mentors, teachers, and colleagues you learn from and who help you along your journey. People is about social norms, influences, and expectations.
ENVIRONMENT: the physical setting in which you operate. It’s the space you live, work, play, and pray in. It includes critical but often overlooked factors like light, sound, color, smell, texture, space. Environment goes beyond just the here-and-now because it also speaks to the beauty around us. In today’s world, environment includes your digital space as well.
THINGS are the physical elements you use or interact with. They are the externals that help you get where you want to go. Things can be manipulated, changed, pressed into service. They can range from the simplest reminder sticky note to more complex incentives and reward systems.
Notice that each domain in the model distinguishes between factors that drive or enable change.
Motivating factors fuel your desire, drive, and commitment to change
Enabling factors make it possible for you to take and sustain action
This reinforces the point that we made earlier: Motivation is not the only game in town!
We can’t emphasize enough how important it is to appreciate that being productive, changing behavior patterns, and crushing bad habits depends on both desire and ability.
One without the other simply doesn’t work . . . at least for very long.
Read more about the Be Your Own Best Coach Behavior Design Model (formerly called the Y-PET framework) here: Y-PET FRAMEWORK . . . THE ART & SCIENCE OF LASTING BEHAVIOR CHANGE.