About this Episode

Welcome to today’s episode of The Communication Solution podcast with Casey Jackson, John Gilbert and Danielle Cantin. We love talking about Motivational Interviewing, and about improving outcomes for individuals, organizations, and the communities that they serve. In this episode we delve into the complexities of sustaining behavioral changes beyond the initial enthusiasm of the new year. They explore the intersection of motivation, environment, and identity in shaping our ability to maintain new habits. This episode offers a blend of personal anecdotes, motivational interviewing techniques, and practical strategies for long-term change, making it an invaluable resource for anyone looking to transform their approach to personal goals and well-being.

In this podcast, we discuss:

• Understanding Motivation: The discussion on the significance of ‘Focus Mountain’ as a metaphor for setting and achieving goals.





• Sustaining New Year Resolutions: Strategies to keep up with resolutions past the excitement of January.





• Role of Environment in Behavior Change: Insights on how our surroundings influence our ability to sustain changes.





• Emotional Connection with Future Self: Exploration of how our future aspirations can motivate present actions.





• Overcoming Deprivation Mindset: Techniques to shift from a mindset of deprivation to one of lifestyle change.





• The Importance of Small Steps: Emphasizing the power of starting with minimal, manageable actions.





• Identity and Behavioral Change: Discussion on how changes in self-perception can impact habit formation and maintenance.





• Celebrating Progress and Finding Joy: The importance of acknowledging small wins and incorporating joy in the journey of change.





• Leveraging Personal Relationships: How relationships can motivate and challenge us in our journey towards personal improvement.





• Agency and Informed Choice: The role of agency in behavioral change and the importance of being well-informed in decision-making.

You don’t want to miss this one! Make sure to rate us or share this podcast. It would mean so much to us!

Thank you for listening to the communication solution. This podcast is all about you. If you have questions, thoughts, topic suggestions, or ideas, please send them our way at casey@ifioc.com. For more resources, feel free to check out ifioc.com. 

Transcribe

 Hello and welcome to the communication solution podcast with Casey Jackson and John Gilbert. I’m your host, Danielle Cantin. Here at the Institute for Individual and Organizational Change, otherwise known as IFIOC, we love to talk about communication, we love to talk about solutions, and we love to talk about providing measurable results for individuals, organizations, and the communities they serve.

Welcome. To the communication solution that will change your world. Hey everyone. It’s Danielle Cantin here with the Communication Solution podcast. And I am with your hosts, Casey Jackson and John Gilbert. Hey Casey. Hey John. Hey. Hey. Glad to have you here.  I am looking forward to helping our audience and myself secretly, not, or not so secretly,  figure out how to navigate the new year.

And how do you actually sustain? Behavior. So I’m thinking ahead February 1st, March 1st, because everything’s kind of fun and glamorous in January.  And seems attainable.  But we’ve talked in other podcasts episodes about,  kind of setting up the goals and change, you know, things that you might want to achieve in the new year.

And this seems like a great segue to, to talk about how to, how to sustain those changes. What are your thoughts? You know, I’ll, I’ll, I’m going to take this off just because I’ll do the conceptual. And then John gets into the, you know, he’s got the brilliant brain for the technical side of it. The thing I think of Danielle is that it’s like prepping for the climb.

And this is why, you know,  the focus mountain, focus, mountain, focus, mountain, focus, mountain, focus, mountain. Like that’s, that’s my reset button is focus mountain. And so we were thinking about is, you know, November hits and you have a great Thanksgiving and you know what, I’m starting my diet January 1st anyway.

So I’m just going to enjoy the holidays. And then Christmas comes and Christmas cookies and the, all the little treats on the doorstep. And, but then in January, January 1st, it’s going to, then New Year’s Eve. It’s like, okay, I’m going to party it up. But because January 1st, because all we see is the top of the mountain, we’re starting to get focused on why it’s important to me, motive is huge, you know?

And, and when we give ourselves so much permission to go there. It’s almost like our own patents, like on the flip side, it’s like, you know, I’m just going to give myself permission and then I’m going to do, you know. Eight days a week, I’m going to be doing CrossFit for two hours a day because I’m going to, I’m going to do it like, you know, but, but that’s why I’m going to eat the extra pumpkin pie and with extra rooftop, like, oh, yes, and just a few more extra drinks,  that I think that whole thing about I am packed, I am loaded, I’ve got my backpack in the corner, I’ve got everything in there, I bought new stuff, like I am climbing this mountain,  So that’s the way that I look at motive in motivational interviewing, because we’re so clear the top of the mountain and I have got the latest equipment because this is the year, this is the year I’m going to hit the peak.

 And then after one, I have to interject because I can’t stop laughing, but it’s almost like the visual you just created for me. It’s that I’m on the base, base of the mountain, and here’s the top and I’ve got a plan. To just blink myself up there on whatever day, fully prepared and completely escaping.

That’s exactly it. And that’s why the sustainability, the motive, people know how to whip up motive, you know, we can listen to podcasts. We can, you know, get inspired by things we can, you know, buy these diet plans and I’m going to do meal prep and I’m going to, you know, have them deliver my meals to me and I am going to nail it.

Like this is it, you know, and I, I’ve heard about this personal trainer.  And then you’re day four into your first fast and you’re like, I hate this. And then you’re supposed to get up in the morning and go to the personal trainer and you’re like, and I hate him, or I hate turnover. I hate them. . And then it’s just like, now you’re week two and you’re like, God, I, how have I gained five pounds?

I stopped two weeks ago and I’ve gained five pounds. And it’s like, and this backpack, why did I pack so much crap in here? Like I didn’t need a. gold plated canteen.  So I’m ditching that thing. And then you’re sitting on the stump rubbing your feet going, why the hell am I climbing in the first place?

So that’s the Casey version of trying to sustain behavior change from a focused mountain perspective. Now let john jump in and give you all that. The technical aspects of what just happened when I give you the visual aspects of what just happened. Oh my gosh, Casey, well, well laid out for a definite,  yes, relatable laying out of all the parameters here.

Well, yeah, ultimately, oh my gosh, there’s so much in what you said, but ultimately it seems to be that we have this intrinsic motivation, right? This, Oh, I’m going to do it. I’m going to get, I’m going to get up there. I’m going to do this thing. And it’s really. It’s serving us because it justifies us feeling satisfied in the moment to indulge to be like, yes, I get to do this thing because then I’ll do this other thing and it’s this really interesting mental gymnastics of we tend to want to be Having our short term gratification and our long term gratification, at least that’s one way to perceive it.

And I’m wondering both of your thoughts on this Casey and Danielle, but this sense of we want that short term gratification and sometimes that long term gratification of really being fit and healthy. It just doesn’t have the same intrinsic draw as the pumpkin pie, as the next drink, as the whatever, as the giving our future self that sense of well being is just harder to emotionally connect with and feel.

And it’s just seems to be that blockage of we do know the next drink. We do know the next dessert gives us that emotional. Yeah. And it seems like that sense of whatever that emotional draw is and how much we can do the mental gymnastics to get past having to have some delayed gratification seems to be something I’ve noticed for myself and In my and other things, when we talk about values and the value of well being, that’s wonderful.

The value of Casey being around for your kids even more potent.  And and there’s some more potency to it, but it still means you got to give yourself that future that future self. That delayed gratification in the now, and that is just so hard to do for a number of reasons. But that’s what I was sensing in the, the rawness and the relatability of what you shared.

No, one of the first thing you learned in biology too. I mean, even in middle school, biology is human beings and animals, you know. Head towards pleasure and avoid pain. So it’s way easier to head towards the second piece of pumpkin pie. And it is very avoidant that my body hurts when I work out like this i