Acting Before Thinking

Quite often, we change behaviour by first changing beliefs. For example, if someone struggles with delegating, we often explore beliefs around trust, perfectionism, and control. Once we identify the belief holding them back, a change in behaviour follows. This is the essence of deep work when people want to upgrade their inner operating systems.

But sometimes there is a faster — and more potent — way.

It works by delivering a jolt to the belief system through action. I saw this first-hand while working with a talented, experienced art director. He was professionally busy and concerned that he didn’t have enough time to create new personal artworks, which was very important for advancing his art and was a place for much-needed experimentation. He said it takes him around three hours to complete each new piece, and an hour or so to get into the zone after everyone in his family went to sleep and no work messages were coming through.

This is when it felt like the right time to offer him an experiential jolt:

“Are you up for a challenge?”

“Yes… maybe… depends…”

“I challenge you to create ten artworks before midnight tonight”.

“Ten????!! It takes me two-three hours to create just one!”

“Ten”.

Pause…

“Ok, there is something that intrigues me in this… and makes me nervous too… but challenge accepted!”

The following week, after he shared the eight artworks he completed that night, I asked:

“So, what do you think of yourself now, and your process?”

“That I can do both, three hours per piece, and eight pieces in three hours. Yes, these eight are different — lighter, less dense, but I now know that it’s within me. I’m expressing my voice rather than waiting for perfect conditions”.

You can create such challenges for yourself, and better yet — for your friends and your colleagues, to see what’s possible.

For example, if your colleague struggles with delegating and is doing too many tasks herself, you can challenge her to delegate ten tasks before the end of day and see what happens. Or if someone keeps saying “I’m not good at public speaking”, you can challenge them to give ten presentations in the next month. And debrief after.

I’ve seen this happen when a leader goes on leave and, to the leader’s surprise, the team steps up and actually does a great job, a better job than the leader thought they were ready to do. Yes, it comes with a punch to the leader’s ego if they thought they were the best expert in the room, but that also allows them to finally focus on their real job — leading the team, shaping strategy, and improving how the organisation works — rather than staying stuck in ‘doing the task’ mode.

Of course, you may want to choose non-crucial areas for such experiments, but usually there are plenty around us.

And although I am a strong believer in gradual transitions into new behaviours without making it into a big deal (like warming up an engine in a car), there is something about such jump-starts that can create a powerful jolt to our belief system which cannot be argued with, because after going through with such challenges, we will have a different lived experience.

Other challenges I’ve seen creating positive jolts:

• Come up with an organisational strategy or business plan in ten minutes — on a napkin

• Offer your services to ten people instead of one

• Saying no to 50% of meetings this month

• Only asking questions in meetings for a week, rather than telling your opinion

• Holding a yoga pose for twenty minutes, when previously you could only hold it for three

• (Place your own challenge here)

These challenges work best when the person issuing them genuinely believes they’re possible. That’s why another person can sometimes do what we struggle to do for ourselves: see beyond our current limits and invite us there. You can challenge yourself too — but asking someone else to do it often creates a stronger shift. Try this where appropriate, and a new, upgraded self-talk may follow naturally.