Planning for challenges can actually help you succeed!

Who we are and what we do are all based on our past experiences. When things happen over time consistently, especially where emotion is involved, they have more of an effect on us. We learn how to behave and our personality is molded as a result of our environment and the feedback we get from others.

Once it becomes learned though, it can be difficult to change and that’s where the term, ‘it takes 21 days to break a habit’ comes in, although this has now been found to be more than 60 days! That’s because, the unconscious mind is the driver and once a conscious activity/experience has been repeated enough times, the unconscious mind learns it. This means the conscious mind is freed up to focus on something else, while the unconscious mind carries on with what it’s learned, without even thinking about it.

Think about what it’s like when you learn a new language, an instrument, sport etc. Initially you have to consciously think about everything and in time, the more you practice, the more automatic the behavior becomes.

When you have pain, you often have to begin consciously focusing on what you are doing, rather than being able to do it completely unconsciously. This focus and the fears related to the pain and activity, tend to create further problems. Once you address the underlying cause of your pain though it can help you begin to progress.

But what if the fear of walking, bending, running etc is so great that this is holding you back? Consciously you know your body is fit and healthy and you can physically do the activity, but unconsciously your fears are holding you back.

A study in the early 1990’s recruited a group of people who had just undergone hip or knee replacements. These are major operations, where bones and muscles are severed, so even slight movements can be very painful in the early days. Despite this, it is very important for these people to move as soon as possible post-operatively to prevent blood clots and scar tissue which could reduce their flexibility. The findings prior to this study were that people often skipped rehab classes and the elderly patients in particular would often refuse to comply with Doctor’s orders because of the pain and the effort required.

Writing down Goals can Improve the Outcome

In this study the participants were all given a booklet which provided them with a detailed rehab schedule. In the back there were 13 additional pages which were blank apart from specific instructions, such as “My goals for this week are… Write down exactly what you’re going to do. For example, if you are going to go for a walk this week, write down where and when you are going to walk.”

They then compared those who had completed the goals section and those who hadn’t and found there was a striking difference. Those who had written down their goals had begun;

• walking almost twice as fast
• getting in and out of chairs unassisted almost three times as fast
• undertaking other activities more quickly.

They found that the more detailed the plan, with reasons for why they were doing something, the more successful they had been. They realized that those who had done well had also focused on how they would handle a specific moment of anticipated pain and described what they would do to handle it. This means that they had pre-empted times when they knew it might be difficult and worked out what they would do about it in order to overcome the urge to give in.

Where could you use this in your life to help you overcome a challenge? Maybe you know you create self-induced stress when you lie in bed ruminating about your condition after you wake up, or you know you are avoiding doing something because of your pain. Why not sit down and plan how you are going to overcome them, little by little? Note down what you will do if you have a setback or you know something is going to be particularly difficult and how will you deal with it.

There’s a saying in the business world, ‘the things that get structured, get done’ and this study indicates that it applies with any goal, even recovering from pain.