How to Make Serious Life Changes
Create a behavior modification plan., Observe and describe the behavior., Measure your baseline., Come up with a replacement behavior., Monitor your progress.As you start your behavior modification plan, you will want to continue collecting data...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Create a behavior modification plan.
If you truly want to make serious life changes, you can't just say you will and let it alone.
You need to commit.
A behavior modification plan is an action-oriented way to commit and monitor your changes.
Behavior modification means exactly what you think it means--it's a method of changing the way you act to certain stimuli in your environment.Behavioral modification techniques allow you to replace undesirable behaviors with those which are desirable through a range of approaches.
One of the most common approaches is positive reinforcement, which is the process of increasing a specific behavior by adding a reward when it occurs.
Behavioral modification is a psychological concept that can be used for virtually all behaviors that you want to change by either completely getting rid of them or increasing how often you do them.
You can use these principles to stop smoking, lose weight, get up earlier, or end your procrastination problem. -
Step 2: Observe and describe the behavior.
Behavior modification requires that you thoroughly understand the undesirable behavior in order to replace it.
You might ask yourself any or all of the following questions to get a better handle on the behavior and when/why/where/how it happens:
When do you do it? What times? How long does it last? Who is usually present when it happens? How does this person impact the behavior? What things are present in the environment a few minutes before it happens? What things are present in the environment a few minutes after it happens? For example, in order to lose weight you may want to reduce the amount of fast food you consume each week.
You will first need to know how much fast food you are eating, and under what conditions. , Just jumping right into a behavior modification plan without collecting any data beforehand can jeopardize your results.
Spend several days or weeks carefully examining the occurrence of the behavior that you want to change, answering some of the questions that help describe it.Methods for measuring might be to tally the amount of fast food meals you eat each week, as well as determining exactly what you typically order and how much you eat of these meals (e.g. burger, fries, and milkshake with a total of 1238 calories). , Since you are looking to make a major life change, odds are, you want to stop some undesirable behaviors.
As such, it can be helpful to devise a list of alternative behaviors you can do to help with the transition.
Once you closely understand the reason you engage in the undesirable behavior (by describing and observing it), you can then find healthier behaviors that meet the same urge or stimulus.For example, if you realize that you always eat fast food on days you work late, you can pack a snack or prepare a few healthy meals ahead of time to suit this purpose.
If you want to cut back on alcohol and tend to drink socially, you might skip a few hangouts or ask your friends to meet up for coffee instead., Doing so helps you identify patterns or even new stimuli that promote the undesirable behavior of which you weren't aware.
On the positive side, writing down how much the undesirable behavior is occurring and how much the new replacement behavior is occurring can show you whether you have truly decreased the likelihood of it happening. -
Step 3: Measure your baseline.
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Step 4: Come up with a replacement behavior.
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Step 5: Monitor your progress.As you start your behavior modification plan
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Step 6: you will want to continue collecting data throughout.
Detailed Guide
If you truly want to make serious life changes, you can't just say you will and let it alone.
You need to commit.
A behavior modification plan is an action-oriented way to commit and monitor your changes.
Behavior modification means exactly what you think it means--it's a method of changing the way you act to certain stimuli in your environment.Behavioral modification techniques allow you to replace undesirable behaviors with those which are desirable through a range of approaches.
One of the most common approaches is positive reinforcement, which is the process of increasing a specific behavior by adding a reward when it occurs.
Behavioral modification is a psychological concept that can be used for virtually all behaviors that you want to change by either completely getting rid of them or increasing how often you do them.
You can use these principles to stop smoking, lose weight, get up earlier, or end your procrastination problem.
Behavior modification requires that you thoroughly understand the undesirable behavior in order to replace it.
You might ask yourself any or all of the following questions to get a better handle on the behavior and when/why/where/how it happens:
When do you do it? What times? How long does it last? Who is usually present when it happens? How does this person impact the behavior? What things are present in the environment a few minutes before it happens? What things are present in the environment a few minutes after it happens? For example, in order to lose weight you may want to reduce the amount of fast food you consume each week.
You will first need to know how much fast food you are eating, and under what conditions. , Just jumping right into a behavior modification plan without collecting any data beforehand can jeopardize your results.
Spend several days or weeks carefully examining the occurrence of the behavior that you want to change, answering some of the questions that help describe it.Methods for measuring might be to tally the amount of fast food meals you eat each week, as well as determining exactly what you typically order and how much you eat of these meals (e.g. burger, fries, and milkshake with a total of 1238 calories). , Since you are looking to make a major life change, odds are, you want to stop some undesirable behaviors.
As such, it can be helpful to devise a list of alternative behaviors you can do to help with the transition.
Once you closely understand the reason you engage in the undesirable behavior (by describing and observing it), you can then find healthier behaviors that meet the same urge or stimulus.For example, if you realize that you always eat fast food on days you work late, you can pack a snack or prepare a few healthy meals ahead of time to suit this purpose.
If you want to cut back on alcohol and tend to drink socially, you might skip a few hangouts or ask your friends to meet up for coffee instead., Doing so helps you identify patterns or even new stimuli that promote the undesirable behavior of which you weren't aware.
On the positive side, writing down how much the undesirable behavior is occurring and how much the new replacement behavior is occurring can show you whether you have truly decreased the likelihood of it happening.
About the Author
Jean Collins
A passionate writer with expertise in creative arts topics. Loves sharing practical knowledge.
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