Many people know what they need to do to improve their health and wellbeing, but they don’t do it.  This is what I call the knowing-doing gap and I have created a mnemonic to help close this gap, to make behaviour change EASIER, and here is what it stands for;

E – explore your reasons why. The world-famous coach, Anthony Robbins, says ‘Find your why, and you’ll find your way’. It’s a great quote, but the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche beat him to it by 100 years or so when he said ‘He who has a why to live can bear almost any how’. This is backed up by Self-determination Theory, which is the most scientifically researched theory of human motivation and the research shows that when people cross what’s called The Threshold of Autonomy – where they get clear on the reasons why a behaviour or goal is important to them (often at an emotional level) – then they are much more likely to be successful. So, find your why and write it down in a place you’ll see it every day.

A – accountability partner. Anyone who’s ever trained with a partner knows that it greatly enhances your chances of success. Ideally, you’d have someone to go on your journey with you, but if that’s not possible, you can still have an accountability partner – someone that you communicate your plan with and that you check-in with on a weekly basis. Being accountable to someone greatly enhances your chances of carrying out the desired behaviour. Who will your accountability partner be?

S – scaffold your goals. When I coach people, I really focus on getting them to build a scaffold around their goals to make it more manageable, especially if the goal is more than 3 months away, such as losing 15 kilos, or getting fit. The key here is to write down the long-term goal, but then focus is on what are you going to do in the next month. The reason for this is that your frontal lobes, which drive motivation, are much more effective at shorter term goals. If you’re navigating from point A to point B on a map, you should also have interim waypoints, which help you to see if you’re on track or not. Hence, the focus shifts to ‘ What am I going to do this week?’ It’s got to be measurable. Then you’ve got to evaluate your progress weekly and Sunday is a good day for that. Rate yourself out of 10 for the week, and if it was a good score, that’s awesome – what do you need to do next week to match it. If you had an off-week, where did you go wrong, and what changes do you need to make to ensure that this week is better. This creates critical feedback for the brain and builds self-efficacy (the belief that what I’m doing is working) and that will enhance your motivation to keep going.

I – imagery. This is based on Functional Imagery Training, which has been shown to strengthen motivation to change. The key here is to spend a couple of minutes when you wake up to think about what things you will do today to move you towards your goal and to imagine yourself doing it and try to use all of your senses. It will feel a little awkward at first if you’ve never done it, but the more you practice it, the more effective it becomes.

E – environment. This is about controlling your environment to maximise your chances of success. If exercising is important, then setting out your exercise gear the night before, or keeping some in your car, will remove barriers to success. If you need to lose weight, get the treat foods out of the house (and don’t convince yourself it’s for your kids!) and put healthier foods at the front of the fridge and food cupboards, as this has a surprising impact on what you eat. If you’re trying to cut down on alcohol, don’t keep it in the house and when you buy some, buy it for one night only.

R- Ritual Board. Rituals are the process by which you achieve your goals, and process beats goals every day of the week.  A Ritual Board is a list of habits that you do each week and each one will have a target. The key is that we have some rituals which require a fair amount of motivation to do, such as going to the gym, and you do these while your motivation is high. But what’s critical is to have a number of rituals that are easy to do – that when you see your board in the kitchen or bathroom, you can do them straight away. I have things such as push-ups, gratitude, healthy breakfast, etc. The key is to put your Ritual Board somewhere you will see it several times a day and give each Ritual a weekly target (2 gym sessions, 5 gratitude rituals). When you’re not motivated, just do something on the board. Ticking it off will give you a little hit of dopamine, which increases motivation.

The big take-home? Motivation follows action, not the other way around.

Paul Taylor is a Neuroscientist, podcast host and director of The Mind-Body-Brain Performance Institute