I don’t remember when I first heard the phrase “Knowing is half the battle.” I always thought it was one of those sayings that were old, probably kicking around from some quotable historical leader like Eisenhower or Churchill. So, I felt pretty ignorant when I found out this phrase actually comes from the 1980’s cartoon G.I. Joe.
Now I was never a watcher of G.I. Joe. Pretty sure I probably saw the commercials and I was familiar with who the main character was, but I had no idea that the iconic slogan "Knowing is half the battle.” originated there. Turns out the slogan was part of a little section at the end of the show that was added in an effort to make the program more palatable to parents. These educational topics showed a kid in a bind only to be rescued by some wisdom that was shared. The ‘knowing’ was supposed to now prevent this kid from ever making the same mistake again.
Is Knowing Really Half the Battle?
Unfortunately, science has illustrated that we have cognitive biases that are not easily overcome just through ‘knowing’. In fact, Dr. Laurie Santos, Associate Professor at Yale calls this mistaken belief that knowledge is enough to change behaviour, The GI Joe Fallacy. Here is a link to Dr. Santos describing the fallacy for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimHHAID_P0
(In fact, if you have the time, I highly recommend her free course ‘The Science of Well-being’ available on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being)
I’m sure you can relate to this when it comes to improving our health. Just because we know that getting a burger and fries at the drive-thru isn’t as health-promoting as eating the turkey sandwich we had planned to have at home, this doesn’t mean we don’t hit the drive-thru. Just because we know a walk after dinner would do wonders for our blood sugar compared to sitting down for an evening of Netflix, doesn’t mean that we’ll go for that walk.
In fact, for many people, their quest for health consists of a constant search for more information under the mistaken belief that more knowledge will lead to more behaviour change and more success in achieving their goals. We read self-help books, sign up for the latest diet or workout program, follow the next diet guru on social media but shortly after we throw in the towel, the program didn’t work, that guru wasn’t as guru as you thought. We blame the program, or the diet or the crappy book. But what was missing here?
What Actually Works
In one word: Action. But more importantly ‘consistent action’.
When we know better, we can do better but the keyword is ‘do’. Just soaking up knowledge is not going to create change; knowing is not doing and change requires action.
It sounds simple but there are ways that you can take action that can make change easier for you. Here are 5 strategies:
1) One Thing at a Time
Nothing sabotages an effort to change like taking too much on at once. When we start to feel overwhelmed and constrained by the change we’re trying to adopt, we are much more likely to give up. The New Year’s resolution of I’m quitting alcohol and sugar and going to the gym every day is going to make any brain want to retreat. Start with just one thing and when you feel like you’ve got that habit on lock, then layer on another.
2) Start small
Once you’ve identified that one thing you need to ask yourself. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely am I to be able to do this thing consistently? If you give yourself less than an 8 of out 10, you need to start smaller. So, let’s take our last example, of the person who wants to cut out alcohol and sugar and become a daily exerciser. Let’s say they narrowed their one thing down to becoming a daily exerciser. Now initially they had said ‘exercise every day’. On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the chances that any human can go from couch potato to daily exerciser overnight? Not very high… So find a frequency that feels like an 8 out of 10. Maybe it’s a 20-minute walk after dinner three days/week. Maybe it’s doing some bodyweight squats every time they go to the bathroom. Everyone is different and everyone needs to find their 8 out of 10.
3) Expect Mistakes
This is where I find so many people tend to give up. Whenever we’re making a change or learning something new, there are bound to be mistakes along the way. When I child is learning to walk, they fall down a lot, but after the first fall they don’t just give up and never try to walk again so why when we don’t move our bodies like we had planned to or skip our meditation session, do we tend to throw in the towel and quit? This perfectionistic tendency toward black and white thinking is one of the biggest challenges I need to work on with my clients. No one is perfect. There is no such thing. So why do we keep striving for it? The only difference between those that successfully make lifestyle changes and those that don’t is what they do after they make a mistake. The successful ones pick themselves up, take what learning they can from the experience and move forward. Those unsuccessful ones threw in the towel after the first falter. It’s not the mistake that keeps us from our goals, it’s how we respond to those mistakes.
4) Be a scientist, not a drill sergeant
Part of managing our mistakes is the attitude we take toward them. When we dig into the box of donuts our spouse brought home when we said we weren’t having one today, we have two options:
- We beat ourselves up. We verbally tear ourselves down for our lack of self-control. Drill sergeant-like phrases such as ‘You’re such a failure.’ or ‘Why do you keep doing that?!’ ‘You’re never going to be able to do this.’ run through your head. How do these make you feel? Probably pretty horrible. When we feel horrible, we don’t tend to actually investigate what happened with a rational mind and learn from it. When we feel horrible, our brains go ‘Woah, this change we’re making is not worth it. Look at bad it makes us feel’. It makes us want to give up…
- The second option is to put on our scientist hat and calmly look at the situation. What was I feeling at the time? What thoughts were going through my head? What might have happened in the day that was putting me off my game? Is there a pattern here? What could I think next time that might help me behave in a way that is consistent with the habit I’m trying to build here? What small change could make it easier to do it next time?
When we approach these types of situations from the perspective of the curious scientist, we take the drama out of the situation. We don’t focus on this being a failure or a mistake but rather a learning opportunity and the pathway to future success.
5) Celebrate!
Our brains respond to instant gratification and positive reinforcement. That’s just how evolution designed us. When food was scarce, we needed to instinctually eat all that yummy honey when we found it to store as many calories as we could when the opportunity presented itself. Now our environment has changed to provide us with all kinds of instant gratification in the form of social media, Netflix, hyper-palatable foods, comfortable couches, alcohol, etc. and our brains are all over it! It’s the instant gratification jackpot. The challenge with lifestyle changes is that there is not necessarily any inherent instant gratification, at least not initially, so we need to create it.
When you do get to bed on time, give yourself a high five. When you fit in that meditation session, check it off on a habit tracker and watch your brain get excited about the streak of meditating that you’ve been on. When you go out and move your body, really pay attention to how good you feel afterward. These are all the rewards we can give our brain to create a positive association with our new habits.
Getting Started
So what do you do now? Put down the diet book, stop the self-help podcast, skip the next article you read about how to meditate. You know enough to get started. Just pick one small thing, to be your own scientist and most importantly, your own cheerleader.
Don’t feel like you’re ready? Feel like maybe you need a little help identifying where to start, struggle with turning into a drill sergeant, tend to give up when things don’t go according to plan? If this is the case, you’re not alone and that’s exactly where health coaching comes in. Book a free consultation to see if health coaching may be just what you need to make permanent, lasting change.
