Change - Reprogramming ourselves
- Eliot Muir
A good general principle about human dynamics when it comes to changing how we think and act is to remember that:
It’s fastest to intellectually understand a concept
It takes more time and more repetition to emotionally get a concept, to identify and feel that it is right.
It takes longer still and even more repetition to change actual behaviour
As human beings we literally do a lot of things on complete ‘auto pilot’ without consciously thinking. The routines we go through in the morning getting breakfast, brushing our teeth. Modifying how we conduct ourselves in our conversations. How we write code. We weren’t born with any of these behaviours - these were learnt but rather you could say were ‘programmed’ into us.
To achieve a change takes considerable repetition and focus on making that one change.
A classic example is intellectually comprehending that if one eats less processed food and more fruits and vegetables, that one will result in better health. But it is much more work to re-program our day-to-day behaviours to implement this idea.
Why does this matter?
It’s a really helpful concept when trying to change your own habits for the better. It’s also a very key concept in management when coaching - whether you are managing an internal team or helping a client fine tune a business process - it’s generally easier to focus on one big change at a time and have the expectation that repetition is required to get each change to happen.