We Need a New Dictionary for Healthier Living
Before you dive into the story below, I have a quick question for you: Which of the two options below do you think better promotes exercising?
- Commit to exercising
- Celebrate through exercising
Click here to participate in this quick, anonymous survey. I’ll tally your responses across this newsletter and other places I’m asking, and next month I’ll reveal the winning response!
Now, onto my story. It’s related to this time of year, a few weeks after resolutions.
Some years ago, a community asked me to advise them on a walking campaign they were going to launch. They excitedly presented their slogan, “Pledge 20” (referring to walking 20 minutes per day), and asked for my reaction.
While I hated to disappoint them, there was no way around it.
I said, “Pledge 20? People already commit to what feels like 100 other things every day. I don’t think most will be excited about pledging to devote another 20 minutes to walking every day.”
Although some people will be motivated by this firm command to commit to exercise, we have to think about what most people will feel when they see that slogan. And whether the slogan is sufficiently compelling to cultivate long-term choice making (vs. just the decision to start).
I suggested an easy change word change that might not only be appealing, but help shift the way people perceive walking. How about framing that walk as celebrating 20? When I hear that meaning reframe inside my own head, I feel my face automatically relax and my energy begin to rise. Try it, and see what you observe in yourself.
The terms we use for a choice or behavior — whether we say them in our own head or use them in our campaigns or coaching — frame the way we look at those choices and behaviors. That frame influences the feelings and experiences we have when we do them — and not always in the way we intended or that benefits us.
Bottom line: When it comes to cultivating the personal ownership of choice (ours and others) that underlies sustainability, the words we choose matter deeply. Now that we’re a few weeks after New Year’s enthusiastic goal setting, consider whether a pivot in term, meaning, or purpose might benefit the overarching behavior-change project. Maybe not, but maybe so.
I’m very curious to learn what you and others think about the commit vs. celebrate question when it comes to framing our exercise plans. And while we’re waiting for the survey results to come in, I am actually celebrating a couple of things right now!
I’m celebrating the fact that The Joy Choice was named one of The best health books experts read in 2022 by The Washington Post!
Being selected for this list was a wonderful a surprise and an incredible honor.
I’m also celebrating the great feedback I’ve gotten from book clubs that have selected The Joy Choice to read and discuss. As an educator, I want my work to do more than just resonate. My greater objective is that it actually helps people flip their internal scripts about their exercise and eating decision-making in adaptive and lasting ways. So, I designed The Joy Choice Guide to help readers cultivate that outcome through strategic and provocative questions.
If that objective is appealing, and your family, friend, or professional book club is looking to adopt fresh, joyful, and actionable thinking, visit my new Joy Choice Book Club page.
And one more thing. I enjoy hearing from book clubs! After your discussion of The Joy Choice, send me your book club’s biggest burning question via email and I’ll get back to you. Also, I virtually attend a select number of book clubs every year to provide live Q&A and coaching.
Feel free to share this post with others who share your interest in the science-based how-to’s of creating lasting changes that can survive in the real world.
Copyright © Segar, Michelle.