What do Willie Nelson and Viktor Frankl have in common?

We all need triggers.

I know what you’re thinking, Willie Nelson’s guitar?

No…

Behavioral triggers.

(sorry not sorry for the dad jokes, it’s part of who I am shrugs)

I struggle with any system that is complicated and involves decision trees. 

In my quest for the OPTIMAL, I’ve found that behavioral triggers work much better for me. 

Essentially, instead of trying to fit your mind into a matrix you just identify a few non-optimal actions that you engage in every day, trigger on those, and do something else.

Simple!

Just not easy.

So, why does this work?

Because state changes are super obvious when they happen.

Triggers are normally associated with emotional state changes. 

So, when you go from feeling happy to mad, or apathetic to sad, it’s a pretty definite change and you realize it immediately. 

By the same token, when you engage in an action (trigger) that leaves you feeling worse about yourself, you know it instantly. 

Triggers are the closest thing to an automated behavioral mechanism that humans have. 

So, we’ll use that automation to our advantage.

Instead of an emotional trigger after the fact you can be proactive and use that non-ideal action as the trigger. 

Here are a few examples of this for myself:

• Sleeping in

  • I HATE the feeling of sleeping 2-3 hours later than I need to. That’s 2-3 hours of time that I could have read, written, or worked out. So, when I feel the urge to curl up under the covers, I will picture my ideal future getting blurrier, out of focus and use this as motivation to get up and captain the ship.

• Watching video reels

  • This is such a monumental waste of time. And I engage in it way too much. Instead, when I feel the urge to open YT or IG, I will open the Kindle app on my phone and fill my mind with quality content through reading.

• Telling Dad jokes

  • Instead of ABSOLUTELY killing with a witty, creative dad joke that makes everyone around simultaneously envious and self-conscious about their lack of comedy skills, I might instead squash that urge and say something both poignant and insightful.

You get the picture. 

Here’s my challenge to you: join me.

• Identify your non-optimal behaviors

• Write them down

• Create an alternative action for each

Swanagan

P.S., if you refer my email list to 5 people, I’ll send you a t-shirt for free: