This article was originally published in Character Core Magazine by Strata Leadership in the June 2024 edition.
My chemistry professor often quipped, "Nature is lazy; if it had its way, it would sit on the couch with a bag of chips." His message: nature chooses the easiest path. Human behavior, however, differs from chemical processes in one crucial regard: we have a future orientation. We consider the impact of our actions on our future.
We all have visions for our future—career, home, finances, family, and travel—however, a desire for a better tomorrow often fails to motivate us to do the right thing today.
Despite ourselves, we frequently make choices that undermine our goals: opting for convenient junk food over nutritious meals, passive entertainment over physical activity, or isolation over social interaction. We often prove unreliable allies to ourselves.
Engineers approach problem-solving by first defining the problem and listing assumptions. Similarly, in designing our future, we must state our goal and list our assumptions; namely, we must assume that willpower will be conspicuously absent.
The good news is that we can anticipate our future behavior and design for it. To prepare, we need two things: a clear vision and a system for behavioral design.
Step 1: Find a Vision that Resonates
First, our vision must resonate deeply with us. A founder once told me he aspired to make one billion dollars and buy an island, but he was clearly repeating a (ridiculous) pop culture vision of success. Despite his success, he has remained tirelessly devoted to building a business where he can do good work and create jobs in his community – in a desolate desert. It has proven to be a more compelling vision to him than any island could.
Step 2: Anticipate a Future Lack of Motivation and Design for It
Second, we must anticipate and proactively address our future lack of motivation. According to BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits, behavior occurs when motivation, ability, and a prompt converge simultaneously. The best prompts are those that already happen (for example, brushing your teeth prompts you to floss), and our motivation ebbs and flows. Therefore, having a solid understanding of our abilities is crucial because abilities are our primary influence point. Fogg's Ability Chain visualizes abilities in terms of time, money, physical and mental effort, and routine. If any link in the chain is broken, our actions will fail.
When designing our future selves, our vision must compel us, and we can use the Ability Chain to anticipate what will most likely cause us to falter.
Willpower is a fickle friend—our resolve wavers when faced with comfort, comparison, choice, or challenges. We can proactively shape our future by anticipating low motivation and designing an environment where we can be our best selves and disrupt our natural tendency to be lazy.
References
Fogg, B. (2020). Tiny Habits: The small changes that change everything. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.