Effective Strategies for Breaking Unproductive Patterns

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Implement if-then planning to automate responses and reduce decision-making load. Tracking behaviors through journaling or apps increases accountability and provides insights into patterns. Regular meditation enhances mindfulness, improving the brain's ability to engage in mindfulness. Recognize that behaviors have a context and reason, acknowledging that responses are often a reaction to stimuli rather than being 'crazy'.

In this episode, we sit down with therapist Britt Frank to discuss the intention action gap, the psychological term for the chasm between what you very much intend to do and what you tend to do instead. It turns out, there's a well-researched psychological framework that includes a term for when you have a stated, known goal – a change you'd like to make in your life – something you wake up intending to finally do or get started doing, but then don't do while knowing full well you are actively not doing what you ought and wish you had done by now. After we discuss this phenomenon and how to deal with it, we get into procrastination and how to escape all manner of dead-end behavioral loops.

The Getting Unstuck Workbook

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