The Method: step 3, conceive of new consistent environments, beliefs, and behaviors

October 27, 2011 by Joshua
in Awareness, Blog, Freedom, Leadership

EDIT: I modified how I present the Method slightly. Please see the new version of this page and the updated series on implementing the Method.

The next step after awareness is to plan — in particular, to conceive of new environments, beliefs, and behaviors that are consistent with each other and what you can’t or won’t change to replace the old ones and designed to bring about emotions you want.

Choosing environments, beliefs, and behaviors to bring about the emotions you want leads you to live according to your values, nobody else’s. It makes you resilient to feeling bad and to some extent to other people’s influence

Choosing them consistent with each other means you will feel reward once the emotions become consistent with them. That means whatever happens in your life, no matter what emotions you feel related to whatever situation, when you start transforming that part of your life, you will feel reward. To do so is completely under your control and costs nothing. In other words, using the Method can lead to a rewarding lifestyle no matter what.

As you transform more parts of your life, more of your life will bring you reward. Imagine that — a life rewarding in as many ways as you work on, in whatever combination of characteristics you want — long-term reward or short, rich and complex or simple, intense or subtle, or painful or pleasurable.

Here are a few examples of sets of environments, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors you might prefer regarding the example situations I mentioned in the Model, step 2.

The art of choosing the best set of environment, belief, and behavior for yourself and your situation comes with practice but can challenge you at first. How do you know they’ll be consistent? How do you know they’ll bring the emotion you want. At first getting a good combination may be challenging. Future posts with give guidelines for choosing.

Becoming more entrepreneurial
  • New environments:    Business school, VC offices, garage
  • New beliefs:            You have to help people to make money, competition helps
  • New emotions:        Excitement, leadership, accountability
  • New behaviors:        Write business plan, present to VCs, hire people
Improving public speaking
  • New environments:    On stage, in front of crowd
  • New beliefs:            Speakers have high status, messing up is fun
  • New emotions:        Excitement, fun, nothing to lose
  • New behaviors:        Speak, practice on camera, in mirror, prepare
Running a marathon
  • New environments:    Central Park, with other runners, good shoes
  • New beliefs:            It’s a matter of training, less able people have done it
  • New emotions:        Excitement, dedication, discipline
  • New behaviors:        Distance running, eating well, reading about running

I hope you can see adopting these sets of environments, beliefs, and behaviors would lead you to new directions, independent of where you started.

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1 response to “The Method: step 3, conceive of new consistent environments, beliefs, and behaviors

  1. Pingback: The Method: step 4, create and implement them | Joshua Spodek

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