Week 4 - Cue Cards
Cues are signals that we either get or we don’t. In my life, I’ve had a pretty hard time picking up on social cues, and oftentimes find myself in awkward situations. But other cues are a lot more subtle, and contextual to the existing habits that exist in our lives, and I’ve been recently reflecting on some of my own. I wake up and immediately look at my GymVerse app, and that tells me that it’s time to get into the mindset to workout. When I drive to work in the morning, the commute is a cue to get into “work mode.” In contrast, the drive home is my time to shift into “home life.”
Cues are the invisible shifts into the spaces that we occupy, both consciously and unconsciously. Some can be productive, such as for ensuring you maintain fitness or professionalism, while others could be counterproductive to your better self, like when I see a certain name on my client list and begin to dread the time until that service is over. Acknowledging that cues shape our behavior is one of the ways we are able to make a change in how our behavior operartes.
What happens when we remove cues from our life? Will habit and internal motivation take over? I came across a practical example last week during my workouts. I had just finished my 2nd consecutive 6-week strength program, and wanted to take a week off to simply focus on some core and cardio, so I intentionally told myself, “Just use the Apple Fitness+ programs for a few days.” The fitness+ programs are solid and are what motivated me and provided structure to begin working out a few years ago. They are, however, a different type of workout mindset. GymVerse allows me to have adequate rest in between sets, I can listen to the audio of my choice, and it presents me with progress reports. These are all passive cues that make the experience completely enjoyable. Apple Fitness+ requires me to follow an enthusiastic instructor at the pace of a high intensity workout, set to the soundtrack of their choice. These exercises are fantastic, but they are not presented in a way that resonates with me.
So what happened? I may have completed the workouts, but I found myself dragging my feet to start the program, spending 15 minutes in decision paralysis. I also found my focus wasn’t present in the same way I am with GymVerse. If I’m not in control of the soundtrack, I find myself wishing I was somewhere else. But then the week ended, and I started a new strength training regiment. The productive cues came back, and the motiovation quickly recovered.
Defining positive cues will provide motivation when it won’t come naturally. Sometimes, acknowledging and reframing the negative cues are how you can develop a better attitude towards the task. I can choose to dread the client I have nothing in common with, or I can choose to look forward to an opportunity of finding common ground. Regardless of the situation, recognizing both the cues themselves, as well as your relationship with them, will shape your behavior in any situation you find yourself in.
