Creating a Positive Change

How to change a habit – starting a new habit – start going to gym, stop eating fats / sweet etc.

Before I give you a practical way to creating a new habit, let us first understand how does it work.

When we smell the first rain, our memories flood with the smell of rain, food that we ate and
feelings we had in our childhood. For most of us these are positive, warm fuzzy feelings – like having
a pakoras sitting in balcony and sipping hot chai.

For others who may have had a negative experiences, they would shudder at the experience.

What is happening is very simple – with first rain, a bacterium – Actinomycetes, disperses it spores,
which is carried by moist air. This smell has a name too – Petrichor. This has got nothing to with my
childhood, but it still takes me back to my small-town house. This is what is called “Anchoring”. An
easy and everlasting way of changing our habits is by creating a positive “Anchor”, and our mind will
do the rest.

First time this property of mind was studied was by Pavlov.

Pavlov’s dog used to salivate when meat was presented to the dog. Pavlov started to ring the bell,
when the meat was presented to the dog. After some time dog started salivating even when no meat
was presented.

Thus a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like salivation, replaced
a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), to a unconditioned response (salivation).

Child who is being bullied or is scared of teacher, gets stomach ache or even fever, when the child is
forced to go to school. Music is such a mood stimulator and it is nothing but an Anchor.

Fun exercise think the advertisements write down the actors and their attributes and see if the
attributes of the actors match the attributes of the product. I will do one for you.

Thumbs UP. Salman Khan has been associated with Thumbs Up the longest. He is associated with
verbs like – Long lasting, rough and tough, adventure, Old but still powerful. Thumbs up, also, wants
its brand to have similar attributes and the taglines like – Taste the Thunder, I want my Thunder,
Toofani Thanda, Aaj Kuch Toofani Kartey hain.

The second step is to replace Salman with a Chocolate hero, like a Dev Anand or Vivek Mushran, and
check if the brand would still be able to convey its attributes effectively?

There are a few more examples, you may want to do Lux (always Heroin No 1), fairness cream/
whitening cream, Luxury watches (cool and hep actors) etc.

Think of more such products.

Advertisers also, use such anchors- they use celebrities, so that the innate qualities that we associate
the product with the celebrity.

Now the next question is “How can I CREATE a POSITIVE change in Me”, by using an Anchor.

It is a process of associating an internal response (thinking of my home town / pakodas/ chai) with
some external (first rain / smell of Petrichor) or internal trigger.
The next step is to create an Anchor.

1. Determine how you want to feel. Say, “Want to go to Gym everyday”.

2. Remember a time when you were going to Gym every day, or if you will go to Gym everyday- How
did / will you feel? What are the positive words you heard? How did you see yourself? How did
others see you? Think about the other positive changes you felt in life?
You do have atleast one!  Relax and let memories come to mind.

3. Choose an anchor device that involves touch, such as touching your thumb and forefinger
together, or the alarm clock or alarm on your mobile (I would prefer this).

4. Remember what you saw, heard and felt, when you were hitting the gym regularly. You must put
yourself inside the memory as if re-living it. Don’t view the memory from a distance. You have to
‘be there’ again.
Relive the memory until you begin to feel happy / or have positive emotions in the same way you
felt it at the time. As the feeling comes on, activate your anchoring device from step #3- that is let
the alarm in your mobile go off.
Do it multiple times, till the time you feel a strong connection is created.
5. Test the anchor. Let the mobile alarm go off and check if you feel positive.
Of course, don’t be sceptical and resist the anchor. Allow it to happen.