Quickthink

 A quick gift for those who make new year’s resolutions

Oscar Wilde said that he could resist anything … except temptation. And we may be closer to Wilde than we would like to admit on that issue. Resisting temptation is not easy. But an interesting research project profiled in the August 2012 Journal of Consumer Research sheds some light on how to do better.  It has to do with how we talk to ourselves when presented with temptation.

Here is the main idea - saying “I can’t …” is a weak response compared to saying “I don’t …”. Why? Perhaps it is because saying “I can’t …” suggests deprivation (a lack of the thing that you crave). Saying “I don’t …” suggests something rather different. It suggests that you can live without it. It is empowering in that way.

Hmmm … Seems worth a try. I wonder if it also works with “I can …” versus “I do …”?

BTW, wondering how I bumped into the above article? I saw it profiled this morning in my Zyte aggregateor on my Ipad. Very cool.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2013 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Professional Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.