Helping Patients Create Habits
Whel
Introduction
There are few things enjoyable more for a clinician than helping patients create habits that will keep them healthy for life. It’s a joy to see someone who has never been able to stick with an exercise routine transform into a runner (I did that!). Or to see someone who has struggled with their weight suddenly begin losing pounds (been there too!). Or even just seeing someone commit themselves to eating better and losing inches off their waistline without changing anything else in their lives (yay!).
But change is hard. And sometimes, even if you have the best intentions in the world, you simply can’t make real progress toward your goals. Whether those goals are fitness-related or not. So today we want to talk about some great tools for helping people build habits that stick: how they work, what makes them effective, and what happens when they don’t work as planned…
Define your goal.
Before you start, it is important to define your goals. You want to be ambitious but also realistic about what you can achieve within a certain period of time. When thinking about your goals, it’s good to think about them in terms of length of time: 3-6 months seems like a reasonable amount of time for most people who are beginning their fitness journey, while more advanced and experienced athletes may have less ambitious goals (e.g., maintaining current performance).
Here’s an example. Let’s say that one week into your new routine at the gym you decide that your goal is simply to get stronger. But without any clear definition or measurable success metrics attached to that goal! On paper this seems fine and achievable enough, but how will you know when or if you’ve achieved it? What would tell yourself “I am strong”? Perhaps nothing would. That’s because there isn’t anything concrete that would measure whether or not such an intangible goal has been reached after only 1 week in the gym (unless perhaps someone else told me so).
Understand your triggers.
It’s also important to understand your triggers. For example, if you’re trying to wake up early and you always snooze the alarm clock at night, then it may be time for a new approach. Instead of setting your alarm for 7 am every morning (which is what most of us do), try waking up at 6 am instead. Even though this means waking up an hour earlier than usual, it will make getting out of bed much easier because you’ve created a routine of being awake for an extra hour before work or school starts (and hopefully by then have gotten over the initial sleepiness).
You can also use habits as a way of dealing with difficult situations in life. A good example would be saving money when there are financial woes going on around us. If we have trouble saving money even when there isn’t anything specific causing us stress financially such as unemployment or debt collection calls coming in every day, then our brains don’t know what else to do but take care of things like paying bills first and foremost instead of thinking about ways on how we can save money later on down the road (or even now).
In these cases with certain individuals who are more prone towards compulsive spending than others might find themselves getting into situations where they find themselves having too many credit cards open at once which makes managing their finances difficult since it takes time away from other important tasks such as working full-time jobs while still trying
Know your rewards.
- Know your rewards. The reward is what you’re getting out of the habit and it’s important to know that it has to be something you enjoy, that won’t lead to other habits, and isn’t addictive or big enough that it will become more important than your health. For example if a patient wants to lose weight they might say “I want to feel good about myself.” This is not a healthy reward as it doesn’t take into account how they would feel after losing 10 pounds.
If someone wants to quit smoking they could say: “I want my friends and family back”. That’s better but still not ideal because this can lead them back into addiction if their friends don’t accept them for who they are after quitting smoking. What we look for in our patients is something like “When I am feeling good about myself I will have more patience with my kids.” If we can get them thinking about rewards like this then they will be more likely to stick with their new habits because their happiness depends on those habits being successful rather than falling into old patterns again due to loneliness or stress from school/work etc…
Don’t fight the friction.
It’s important to not fight the friction. You might feel like you’re getting nowhere, but trust that if you keep at it, you’ll start to see results. Your brain won’t change itself—you have to train it. The key is not trying to be perfect or even expecting success right away. Instead, just work on being flexible and adapting to changing circumstances as they arise.
Be a nudge, not a drudge.
Nudging is not about being a nag. It’s more about encouraging, supporting and creating an environment that makes it easy for someone to succeed. This can include removing barrier. Make sure they have the right support and information, or helping them set goals that are both achievable and within their control (rather than taking the decision out of their hands).
There are two main ways of nudging:
- Make it easier to do what you want them to do—e.g., make healthy food easy to find in a hospital cafeteria or put up posters around campus advertising flu shots.
- Don’t force anyone into anything they don’t want—it should always be a choice; otherwise we risk turning people off from our message entirely
Let them pre-commit to the habit.
A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when people commit to doing something before they feel like it, they’re more likely to actually do it. In other words, pre-committing means that you have to do it, even if you don’t feel like it.
So how can you pre-commit yourself to a habit? One way is by telling someone else about your plans for making that habit routine—and giving them accountability for holding you accountable! Let’s say tomorrow is the first day of your new exercise routine; tell a friend about this and ask him or her not only to check up on whether or not you’re going through with your plan but also record how many days in a row he or she has seen evidence of progress (e.g., weights added). This extra bit of accountability might just be enough motivation for some people who otherwise wouldn’t stick with their goals.
Help them create anchors in time.
Anchors are cues that trigger a response. They can be external, like the time of day, location or emotion; or internal, such as hunger or thirst.
They can also help you create reminders to do the habit by linking it to an anchor: for example, if you want to go for a walk at lunchtime but always forget until it’s too late, setting up an alarm on your phone will serve as a reminder. Or if you plan on working out after work every day but always find yourself too tired at the end of the day and skip exercise altogether—setting up an alarm would be helpful here too! Get a demo of the Whel platform today, to help easily create anchors for your patients!
Build habits around the positive, not the negative.
- Positive reinforcement is more effective than negative. Instead of focusing on what they shouldn’t do, why not ask them to think about what they should do?
- For example, if you want a patient to take their medication at a certain time every day, instead of saying, “You’re going to be late for your appointment if you don’t take this now,” try saying: “Let’s get started on our work so that we can meet our goal of finishing early.”
- And instead of telling someone who isn’t getting enough sleep: “You’ll feel better when you get some rest,” try telling them how much better they’ll feel after getting their 9 hours: “I know how tired and irritable I am when I haven’t gotten enough sleep. Let’s set aside some time tomorrow night so that we can both get the rest we need.”
Consistency is key to making new habits stick.
Consistency is key to making new habits stick. That’s because your brain gets used to the routine and eventually it becomes automatic. But if you skip a day or two, your brain will start asking questions like: “What happened? Is this really important?” And those questions often lead to an abandonment of the new habit altogether. So don’t give up! Consistency often comes down to starting with an achievable goal. Here’s a quick article we did on how to get HEP programs compressed into quick workouts.
Conclusion
In the end, creating new habits for your patients is about helping them make small changes. It’s about motivating them to do something every day that will bring them closer to their goals and make them feel better—even if that’s just taking a few more steps each day.
Recommendation:
An interesting paper on habits of rehab professionals and exercises