Hi Everyone,
I hope 2016 has been amazing for you so far. If you wanted to make a change this year, New Year’s resolution or otherwise, and your motivation has slipped to the point that progress has stalled, remember this: when we engage in any behavior, motivation is only half of it. The other half is ability. Motivation is easy to stimulate, but — unfortunately for many — hard to maintain. Ability is our capacity to engage in a particular behavior. Ability is not simply skill, but the overall ease at which the behavior can be performed. So if you are feeling stuck, and motivation is not doing it for you, try making your path to success easier. We all have a limited capacity to pump ourselves up, but through a host of creative strategies we can almost always increase our ability to perform a desired behavior. This can be done through environmental changes. For instance, if I want to eat healthier meals I can stock my house with only healthy foods (thereby increasing my ability to eat healthy). Or, if I want to run a marathon I can start with achieving a 5 or 10 kilometer race until I build up the needed skill/mastery to achieve a marathon (reengineering the goal to match my current ability). Toying with the ability variable (in the Fogg Behavior Model) is often overlooked because it is goal/behavior specific and motivation is sexier and easier to sell. The good news is when motivation begins to fail us we still have other tools to stack the deck in our favor.
Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The interview this quarter is with Dr. Edgar Schein who is one of the most prominent organizational development figureheads alive. He earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University and later went on to teach at MIT. Dr. Schein is considered one of the godfathers of organizational culture. My interview with Dr. Edgar Schein centered around organizational culture is available by clicking here.
Health and Wellness: This quarter’s health and wellness interview is with Dr. Mitesh Patel who is well known for his research on behavioral economics, where he and his colleagues are discovering innovative ways to elicit and improve healthy behavior. Dr. Patel has been featured on NPR, CNN and in The New York Times. Click here to read my interview with Dr. Mitesh Patel about using rewards and incentives to elicit behavior change and improve health.
Life Experience: Orlando, Florida, was the stage for this quarter’s life experience(s). I spent several days exploring International Drive, which is full of interesting things to see and do. I made my way to the Orlando Eye and WonderWorks (pictured) which is an exploratory museum where the exterior has been built to look like the entire building is upside-down.
Contribution: For contribution this quarter, it was my pleasure to start the year’s philanthropic efforts by donating to AIDS/LifeCycle 2016 on behalf of Justin, as well as making another donation to Augie’s Quest in support of ALS research.
This newsletter marks entry into the second third of the Live Life Love Project. Moving into next quarter, I find myself on mile 25 of my doctoral marathon. By the time I publish next quarter’s edition I’ll have a doctorate. If a 43-year-old hack like myself can get a Ph.D. then I assure you, anything you want is within reach. May you find the finish line for every worthy pursuit you embark on.
In health,
Michael
