Everyone probably has some behavior issues that they want to change. In the Ted Talk, it states three things you can do to change your behavior;These are progress monitoring, immediate reward, and competition.
Progress monitoring means that you monitor your progress of the behavior you want to change, whether doing it more or less. This is important because it helps you know how you are doing and lets you ease into a new behavioral routine. If you don’t know your progress, you might be confused about whether you are improving or not. This lack of knowledge can lead to you giving up on changing your behavior all together.
Immediate reward means that after you have succeeded, you get a reward. This is important because everyone likes getting rewards. The prospect of getting a reward can even motivate you to change your behavior as quickly as possible. If changing this will improve you, and you get a reward, then why not?
The final thing is competition. In a competition, everyone wants to win. If you make yourself a friendly competition with some friends who are changing the same behavior as you, then naturally you will want to “beat” them. This is important because if you compare you to other people, it will help you push yourself to be better.
In short, if you do all these three things, you can efficiently change your behavior. For example, if you want to eat less candy, progress monitoring can show you how much less candy, or sugar free candy, you eat each day, so you can bring it down to a short number. Immediate reward can let you say, treat yourself to a milkshake once you’ve reached your goal. Finally, competition between you and your friends to see who eats less candy can make it feel less like a chore, and more like a fun game.
I hope we can all use these tips to help us change our behaviors for the better.