00;00;00;10 - 00;00;25;12 Kate Hi. I'm Kate, and this is Psych for Life. As you've been either starting a new habit or perhaps trying to break an unwanted habit that no longer serves your goals. Perhaps you've noticed that there are times when you slip into your old ways. Maybe you've only missed a day. Or maybe it's been weeks. Regardless, know that you are not alone and your work has not been lost. 00;00;25;28 - 00;00;55;13 Kate Don't worry. We have evidence based tips to get you back on track. In this video, we will be discussing avoiding all or none, thinking how to assess what went wrong and getting back on track before we jump in to assess what went wrong and how to get back on track. I'd like to introduce you to a common reaction we have when we feel like we've been on a roll with our new habit and then suddenly it stops. 00;00;55;23 - 00;01;20;12 Kate You feel like you failed and you completely give up So an example recently happened in my own life of this thinking where I've been off sugar and I've been doing a great job. Then Girl Scout cookie time comes. A box of Thin Mints comes home, and I have just won. And it tastes so good. And I think I've already broken the habit Let's just eat the whole sleeve. 00;01;21;04 - 00;01;30;01 Kate When this happens, you may fall into the trap of all or thinking. Meaning that when you break a commitment, all of your effort toward building this habit is gone. 00;01;32;08 - 00;01;53;04 Kate But this isn't true. Research has shown that the same techniques that help us build a habit can help us get right back on track. And because we've already built the habit, it's actually easier. Back to my example. Even though I ate the entire sleeve of Girl Scout cookies. And if we're being completely honest, I ate the whole box. 00;01;53;24 - 00;02;18;27 Kate I can just as easily recommit to my healthy eating habits by not buying cookies and not having them in the house. Being aware of this effect can help you catch yourself when you're about to fall into that rabbit hole. You can remind yourself of how far you've come, and that hiccups are a natural part of this process. You can make a mistake or even a string of mistakes and get right back on track. 00;02;19;27 - 00;02;46;10 Kate The best course of action is to assess what went wrong and then to get back to the plan. So how do you assess what went wrong and what went right by before looking at what caused you to miss the habit? First, take a minute to write down or think about all of the things that went right. This might include all of the times you actually engaged in the new behavior or all of the new techniques that you tried that actually worked. 00;02;47;23 - 00;03;10;18 Kate So in my example with avoiding sugar, before I eat the Girl Scout cookies, I had been successfully avoiding sugar for two months, and one of the techniques that was really working was having my community bowl of vegetables out on the table at the ready every day. The next step is to evaluate what interfered with you being as consistent as you would like. 00;03;11;05 - 00;03;36;02 Kate Was it something that was out of your control? Perhaps a family member being sick? Or maybe you were stuck at work. If so, perhaps you need to pick what we call a fresh start day and just keep going. And when we say fresh start, we don't mean starting over. We mean just getting back on track. In addition to the external factors, take a minute to think about the factors that are internal and within your control. 00;03;37;09 - 00;04;04;25 Kate So if you're trying to cut out scrolling social media before bedtime, maybe you've started bringing your phone back into your room at night. That's an example of a factor that's within your control for those aspects, within your control. Review the steps you use to build the habit and ask yourself these questions. Did you start by changing your behavior in small steps, or were you overly ambitious in trying for a big change? 00;04;06;04 - 00;04;28;22 Kate Did you make a clear, simple and specific plan about when, where, and how you were going to carry out the behavior? Were the context cues you used to remind yourself of the habit strong enough to catch your attention and signal you to actually engage in the behavior? Was there too much friction in the environment to make the behavior easy to engage in? 00;04;29;29 - 00;04;56;21 Kate Did you reward yourself for carrying out the behavior? Did you have an accountability partner? If so, are you both actually keeping one another accountable? Is this habit linked to a goal that is still a priority? Whatever the reason is. Take a moment to reflect on the plan you had in place and reflect on what went right and what went wrong. 00;04;57;29 - 00;05;24;08 Kate As I reflect back on my example with the Girl Scout cookies, I realized that maybe I was a little bit too ambitious with cutting out sugar entirely. If I allowed myself a small indulgence every once in a while. Maybe I could have just had one or two and been OK. So how do we get back on track? Once you have reflected on and assessed what went right and what went wrong, you can make your changes to your habit plan to get back on track with your habit goals. 00;05;25;10 - 00;05;50;25 Kate Maybe you need to reduce the intensity of the habit behavior, or you need to decrease the friction in the environment. Or perhaps you even need to make the cues more noticeable. For example, if you skipped your workout habit because you're simply finding your workout really boring, maybe you need to switch up the habit itself. So instead of taking a walk on the treadmill, maybe you turn on some music and take a walk outside. 00;05;51;29 - 00;06;13;07 Kate So as I make my plan to get back on track with healthy eating, I'm looking at my overall goals and how I can still plan for small indulgences and ways that I can enjoy the things that I truly love. If you don't yet have an accountability partner, this habit reset can be a perfect time to include a family member or a friend. 00;06;14;20 - 00;06;36;29 Kate If you do have a partner, but find that you and your partner are having a hard time motivating each other, you can consider revising the plan together. So you have a habit plan that works for both of you. So here are key takeaways for getting back on track. One Remember that missing days does not mean that all your progress establishing your habit is wasted. 00;06;37;12 - 00;07;01;24 Kate You made great progress and you can get back on track to assess what happened. So you know what worked and what didn't work. Three. Adapt your plan and continue building the habit Thanks for joining us. To learn skills that build upon this skill. Check out our other modules right here at Psych for Life.