In the past few weeks we’ve talked about how the built environment shapes your behaviors without you really thinking about it. Product placement, lighting, sounds/music, smells, sizes, shapes, and more can be used to influence your behavior.
We talked about how others use these tools to influence your purchasing, eating, movement, mood, and productivity. And we talked about how you you can use them to help change your ways.
However, this last part was—you changing your environment—was with the goal of setting up a system that made the preferred choice the easy choice. Again, so you wouldn’t have to think. This is because your brain prefers habit over thinking. It wants to conserve energy. Habit is easy. Thinking and decision-making is hard.
But, there are times when you want to make the brain think. There are times, when you can use disruption (which forces thinking) to work for you, not against you. Mel Robbins talks about this in her 5-4-3-2-1 action plan, called "The 5 Second Rule." Daniel Kahneman talks about this in his book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow.
In a nutshell, you can use disruption to help you break free from normal patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are holding you back. Habits don’t stop at controlling your thoughts and patterns, they become your self-image. The self-image needs to be changed to fit the change you are hoping to achieve.
Use the power of disruption to shake up your routines or try something new. You will also naturally use disruption when you make adjustments to your environment that support the choices you want to make. For example, going to bed sooner, saving more, or choosing grapes (nature’s candy) over M&M’s.
How will you disrupt yourself today?
