How often have you tried to change people's habits about safety and find that you did not make much progress? For a short while, they will do whatever you say, but when your back is turned, they resorted back to their old behavior. The safety messages simply did not register in their heads. The truth is, nobody likes to be told what to do and when left on their own, the expression, "Old Habits Die Hard" rings true.
What are these old habits anyway? It's what they do almost unintentionally. It's their natural inclination towards safety.
How do you break those old habits?
The good news is, according to many leading success coaches, you can actually overcome these "wrong" habits by eliminating the thoughts that are holding them back.
People's habits are the result of years of programming in their subsconscious mind. You can re-program the subconscious mind by using two powerful tools: Affirmation and Visualization.
AFFIRMATION
Positive affirmations can come from your conscious mind by sheer will-power, but oftentimes the subconscious mind overpowers this without you even realizing it.
Your habits are what you do without much effort, almost unconsciously. However, when you make deliberate, conscious efforts to change, you really have to struggle quite a bit. This is because it often goes against your natural inclinations.
However, when you keep repeating some affirmations to yourself, gradually it will somehow register in your subconscious mind.
To make use of this technique, you must realize that your subconscious mind can't tell the difference between your conscious mind telling it that something is true and something actually being true. So with a little persistence you can actually change the behavior of your subconscious mind. It has a very powerful influence on your motivation, decisions and ultimately the results you get.
From the safety habit conditioning point of view, when you expose people repeatedly to safety messages or situations long enough, it will register in their subconscious mind to become a habit. The trick is to do it long enough, often enough and extensively enough.
Use whatever you have available - posters, cards, buttons, badges, caps, mugs, pictures, mouse pads, magnets, stickers, bags, T-shirts, outer wear, dresses, even underwear! Remember, the more you expose people to your messages - messages that are meaningful and simple to understand - the better your results for affirmations.
VISUALIZATION
Visualization is another powerful tool that can help you overcome negative programming. Visualization is having clear images to show the subconscious mind what it is that you want it to do for you. If done often enough, it has the power to change the belief system of the subconscious mind to influence actions or habits.
Again, from the safety habit conditioning point of view, what you need to do is to help people visualize. Left on their own, people often are too pre-occupied with their daily activities to do such activities. Moreover, they might not have a clue as to what constitutes good and safe behavior, and what to avoid.
Here, the safety practitioner has some tools available: pictures, cartoons, graphics that tell a story. The best visuals are those that contain pictures with vivid colors, dramatic actions and are self-explanatory. People tend to remember them longer and better.
These powerful Affirmation and Visualization tools can be obtained from Cartoon Web Safety Store.
Thomas Yoon specializes in cartoon illustrations that will make an impact on people's opinions. Subscribe to TechMarketing Ezine. More information on engineering at Marine and M & E Engineer. |
