Change Academy

Latest Episodes:

Radical Acceptance with Heather Hutchison Jun 30, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we depart a bit from our usual format and welcome a guest to the show.

Heather Hutchison is a singer/songwriter and author of the new memoir Holding On by Letting Go. Heather has been blind since birth and one of the things she hopes to do through her music and writing is educate people about disability and mental health.

One of the concepts she explores in her book is this idea of Radical Acceptance, a term that Brock introduced in our recent episode on coping.

So we thought it would be great to have Heather on the show to talk more about that. Please enjoy this conversation between co-host Brock Armstrong and Heather Hutchison.

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Stop Coping So Well Jun 21, 2021

Show notes

Coping mechanisms are not an inherently bad thing. If we can’t avoid or escape something unpleasant or even harmful, figuring out a way to cope with it is a good survival strategy. But sometimes we use coping mechanisms to tolerate things that maybe we shouldn’t be tolerating. In this episode, we explore the difference between helpful and unhelpful coping.

Takeaways:

- Using external pleasures to help us feel better (or cope) in particular situations is natural and normal.
- When those behaviors start to impair your happiness or your ability to achieve your greater goals, it becomes a problem worth addressing.
- Sometimes our coping mechanisms allow us to tolerate a situation that we’d be better off changing or avoiding.
- The first step in dismantling a coping mechanism is to identify what situation, emotion, or trigger leads to the unwanted behavior and then decide if we can react to it differently or work to eliminate it altogether.

Lab Experiment:

1. What problem am I trying to fix with this behavior?
2. Does this behavior actually fix the problem? (Sometimes the answer is yes!…at least for a little while)
3. Does the behavior cause a new problem?
4. How else might I find relief or solve this problem, so that I don’t need this “coping mechanism”?

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How to List Better Jun 11, 2021

Show notes

To-do lists, checklists, scorecards can be great tools to keep us on track. But they can also seem like an overwhelming task themselves. Or worse yet, they can become yet another way that we judge our own abilities or self-worth.

In this episode, we show you how to create a list that suits you and your goals. We also explore how to structure that list so it can keep you on track without being a constant reminder of how much work you have to do.

Takeaways

- When used well, lists or scorecards can help us manage our time, accomplish our goals, and track our progress.

- Make sure your list doesn’t have more on it than you can reasonably accomplish in a given time frame. To-do lists aren’t just for work and chores.

- Make sure you also include things that are fun and rewarding on your list.

- Scorecards are more effective if used to track the things you want to do and not just the things you want to avoid.

- Bonus takeaway: Whether you are keeping a to-do list or a scorecard, include a note about why each task is important to you or how you will benefit from it.

Lab Experiment

- If you have an existing to-do list, make sure it has only things you really plan to accomplish. Remove the dead weight and make a list that seems doable and important to you. If you don’t have a to-do list, start one by listing the tasks that you really want to get done this week.

- Next, add the fun activities you have planned (or would like to plan) to the list.

- Now, choose three new behaviors that you would like to adopt and add those to your list.

- If the list seems too long or feels like a bummer, move items around, change the wording or remove items that lack meaning until you have a list that feels doable and energizing.

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What's Holding You Back? Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Some of our goals or objectives require us to master a range of different skills. You’ll probably be naturally stronger in some areas than others. And sometimes, in order to reach our goals, overcoming or strengthening a weakness is essential.

But it's not just about forcing yourself to work on the things that are hard for you. In this episode, we focus on identifying areas where you need more support--and seeking out resources that can help.

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Cues and Prompts May 21, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we’ll teach you how to identify and dismantle unhelpful cues and also build some helpful ones.

We all have cues in our lives that prompt us to carry out certain behaviors, like putting a seat belt on when we get in a car, grabbing snacks when we sit on the couch to watch a movie, or pouring a glass of wine when we change out of our work clothes.

Some of our cue responses are good (like seatbelts), and some are not so good (like snacks and alcohol). Many of them probably developed over time without our conscious intention.

We can, however, deliberately create cues in our lives to help us make decisions and perform behaviors that will benefit us.

Takeaways

Bringing conscious awareness to our cued behaviors can help us break them.
If we’re trying to break a bad habit it can be really helpful to eliminate or modify the cue as well as the behavior.
Purposely introducing new behaviors that are anchored to already existing behaviors can give us a nice head start.
Introducing a level of fun and gamification to this process can make it more effective.

Lab Experiment

For the next week, see how many cues or prompts you can spot as you go through your day. Jot them down as you come across them on a notepad or in your note-taking app.
At the end of the week, review your list. How many of your cues are triggering helpful behaviors and how many are triggering unhelpful responses?
How can you use this information to dismantle unhelpful cue/response cycles? You might choose to eliminate or modify the cue. Or you might choose to replace the old response to that cue with a new one.

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The Power of Positive Illusions May 07, 2021

Show notes

Having a firm grip on reality is usually seen as a sign of good mental health. But social scientists have discovered that happy and successful people routinely overestimate their skill, talent, and chances of success. In fact, that may be one of the secrets to their success. In this episode, we explore why being overly optimistic is not a cognitive defect that needs to be overcome but a constructive trait that we can cultivate.

Takeaways

Being willing to believe that you’ll beat the odds can make it more likely that you will
When you believe you’ll be successful in the end, it’s easier to cope with (and even learn from) setbacks.
Reflecting on past successes can be a good way to bolster your optimism about the future.
Optimism doesn’t save you from having to do the work. But we’re usually willing to work harder for something that we believe we can achieve.

Lab Experiment

1. Think of a goal or result you’d like to achieve.

2. Visualize what it would feel and look like to achieve it.

3. Picture yourself taking the steps required to make that dream a reality. (If you can’t clearly picture what those steps are, spend some time figuring out what they would be.)

4. Allow yourself to feel confident and optimistic—and let that optimism fuel your determination to do the work.

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Spring Break (Extracurricular) Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

Monica and Brock are taking a brief Spring Break but we will be back in May with brand new episodes.

In the meantime, this is the perfect time to go back and relisten to some of our previous episodes - in particular, the series about the "Eight Things to Make Changes that Last."

You may also find it helpful to download the Lab Notebook at https://changeacademypodcast.com/notebook

See you all soon!

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Changes We'd Like to Keep Apr 09, 2021

Show notes

A year ago, virtually every aspect of our lives changed profoundly: How we eat, shop, work, socialize, exercise, etc. These weren’t changes we chose but changes that were forced on us. Now that we are beginning to imagine life returning to something more similar to pre-pandemic, we have some decisions to make. Are there new habits that we’ve adopted that we might want to keep? Old habits that we don’t want to return to.

What’s clear is that we DON’T want to do is miss this opportunity to make a conscious choice.

Takeaways:

For better or worse, the pandemic forced us to reassess/reinvent virtually every aspect of our lives.
There may be things that we adopted over the last year that actually worked better for us.
It’s worth pausing before we rush back into our pre-pandemic patterns to consider how we might want to return.
No matter what we choose, we are likely to be happier and more fulfilled if we make those choices consciously.

Lab Experiment:

Select an area of your life that you were forced to reinvent during the pandemic and will now have an opportunity to either revert to the previous stays quo or not.
Make a list of all of the ways that the change benefited you all the ways in which the change did not benefit you.
Think about those pros and cons in the context of your values. (Is convenience more important to you than consistency for example? Is quality more important than quantity? Is supporting local business more important than getting the cheapest price?)
Decide what you’d like to do once your options are open. Will you go back to your original status quo, stay with your current status quo, or design a third option that works best of all?

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What's Your Default? Mar 31, 2021

Show notes

Behavioralist Schlomo Benartzi defines a default as “what happens if you do nothing.“ If we’re too busy, distracted, or fatigued to make a choice or decision, the default wins the day. And because we’re often busy, distracted, or fatigued we want to be careful and intentional about which defaults are operating on our lives. In this episode, we’ll show you how to do that.

Takeaways

Some default mechanisms are imposed on us by society, employers, software, etc. Others we create and implement for our own benefit.
Like habits, default mechanisms can be very powerful--both in ways that serve us and ways that don’t.
Because defaults are often somewhat invisible, we may not always notice them. But it’s important to be aware when a default is operating in our lives.
Defaults represent the path of least resistance. But does that path (still) lead where we want to go?

Lab Experiment
Option 1:
Step 1: Identify a default mechanism that is currently in place in your life (whether it’s one that you designed or one that was put in place by someone else).
Step 2: Ask yourself: does this path of least resistance lead somewhere that I want to go?
Step 3: If not, how can you disable that default mechanism?
Option 2:
Step 1: Identify a goal or outcome you want to create. (For example, saving a certain percentage of your income, not reading emails during certain hours, eating more vegetables).
Step 2: Ask yourself: What default mechanism can I put in place to make that happen? (For example, setting up an automatic savings plan, changing the settings on your email client, or subscribing to a produce delivery).

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Office Hours (Extracurricular) Mar 28, 2021

Show notes

In this extracurricular episode, we invite you to listen in to a group coaching session that we held recently with members of our year-long Weighless Program. The strategies and insights that came up in this session can be applied to any change you are working on. And if you think you might like to work with us in the Weighless Program, details are here https://weighless.life/enroll.)

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