Why willpower can't be trusted to help you change behavior.
Each new year, like clockwork, we are inundated with messages about change, how to set new goals or creating a better version of yourself. Now only a couple of months in, and most people will fail to make the long-lasting changes they want. Few people know how to actually make change happen over the long term—and it’s because everyone relies on sheer will.However, willpower itself has been disproven as a consistent method for changing behavior.
As a certified behavior designer, I’ve spent my career analyzing consumer behavior (including my own). What most people don't realize is that any change in behavior, whether it's via marketing or a personal goal, is rooted in the same principles of behavioral science. You need sufficient motivation to make a change, you must have the ability to change a behavior, and you need a prompt to make it happen.
People mistakenly believe that motivation alone can change their behavior.
The reason that willpower can’t be relied upon to change a behavior pattern is because motivation comes in waves. Sometimes a person’s motivation is very high to do something and other times it's low. There are many reasons why you might feel motivated to exercise. Perhaps you just watched an action movie on TV and felt inspired. Maybe you ate too much and don’t feel well. Regardless of the reason, you felt moved to exercise in the moment but the motivation to do so may quickly pass—sometimes in minutes or hours, other times within a day or two. Motivation ebbs and flows like the tide. No one is immune from this flow—including me. They are days when I’m inspired to cycle 50 miles and there are days I feel like being a couch potato.
You can purposely influence motivation.
Although you can’t rely on willpower alone, motivation and desire are critical to make a behavior change last. By understanding how motivation works, you can properly apply it to the design of a new behavior.
To start, we are generally more motivated when the change we want to see in our life is easy. Marketing works around this principle a lot. It uses inducements, like coupons, to tap into simple motivations.
A person’s motivation can also increase if there is an intrinsic reason for it. Often this comes in the form of an emotional state which exists because of the catalyst of some kind. Tapping into emotions is a key driver behind marketing efforts such an anti-smoking campaign. Nothing will make you want to put down a cigarette faster once you’ve seen someone experience lung cancer.
Motivation can also rise by an extrinsic force. Kids are an incredible example of extrinsic force when it comes to tapping into a parent’s motivation -- just ask any parent of a 5 year old. If your kid shows an interest in anything when they are young, a parent will buy it without thought. In marketing, this is the primary ingredient of influencer campaigns.
Changing behavior can be easy when it’s ‘easy.’
When it comes to your ability to create a behavior change, you must be certain you can do the behavior. If you want to run a marathon, you don't start by running 26 miles. You start by walking one. Essentially, as my mentor Dr. BJ Fogg would say, you start tiny. Any significant behavior you want to see happen requires you to break it down into smaller, more digestible parts. Over time, this will increase your ability to perform more difficult behaviors. For marketers, the lesson here is simple. Don't ask your audience to do something too difficult. Start small and increase the level of difficulty throughout time as your audiences’ abilities increase. You don’t ask a customer to buy a car the first time they see it. You asked them to take a test drive.
Secondly, you need a good prompt to spark a behavioral event. This can be extraordinarily simple, but it is best to have your prompt be somewhat associated with the behavior you want to perform. If you desire to be more mindful, your prompt shouldn’t be “after taking out the garbage, I will do two minutes of meditation.” This generally won't work because the first behavior is not in any way associated with the second. A better prompt for this could be something like a note on your nightstand that reminds you to do two minutes of meditation after you turn off the light.
A prompt can really be anything, but it must be reliable. Don't ask a person to be your prompt. Use an associated behavior if possible. Post-it-Notes work well, too. You can also try the greatest prompting device in the universe: your cell phone. You can schedule reminders or calendar notifications at any time to prompt a behavior. One of my favorite prompts that I use on my kids is placing cleaning products in their bathroom sink when it’s time for them to clean their bathroom. Works great, by the way.
If you want to apply a behavior design approach to your work, reach out to me at roger.hurni@offmadisonave.com and I will gladly schedule a 15 minute session to discuss how you can take action to make the changes which will lead to the outcomes you desire.