Brain Damage Pill
“Not exercising is like taking a brain damage pill.”
Whoa. That’s pretty strong language. I know it’s true that exercising increases alertness, energy, and the ability to concentrate, and that it improves physical and emotional well-being. But brain damage pill? Isn’t that going too far?
No. That’s exactly as far as I need to go.
After several years of failing to transform my off-and-on running habit into a permanent, lifelong habit, I have finally discovered a powerful key to achieving my goal: the highly emotional, simple, concrete self-advertisement. I have learned that using this “brain damage pill” metaphor stimulates me to behave in the way my “higher self” wants me to behave (go for a run), even when my “lower self” is feeling exhausted, unenthusiastic, or tempted by couch-potato pursuits and sleep. The brain damage pill metaphor has proven to be magic.
I gained insight into the “why?” behind this simple technique for behavioral change from the new book, Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The authors assert that there are six principles for making ideas “sticky” and influential, and #5 on the list is, “Make messages emotional; make people care.”
The Heath brothers cite an example of the head-to-head competition of two anti-smoking ad campaigns, both targeted at teenagers, in the late 1990s. One ad took an analytical approach and had the tagline, “Think. Don’t Smoke.” The other ad (from the famous “The Truth” campaign) showed body bags piling up outside the headquarters of a major tobacco company, and implied that teens were being lied to and manipulated by conniving, rich tobacco executives. In follow-up studies of the ads’ effectiveness, seven times as many teenagers remembered the body bag ads as remembered the “Think. Don’t Smoke” ads. Pushing the right emotional button beats out rational, research-based analysis. Every time.
For years, I tried to motivate myself with the knowledge that aerobic exercise is good for my body and brain. We’re all aware of studies that prove the undeniable benefits of daily exercise, the most compelling being that the habit significantly increases the length and quality of our lives! And yet, “Exercise because it’s good for you” has always been strangely devoid of motivational potency.
Even the shocking phrase, “Not exercising is like voluntarily injecting myself with an early-death serum” hasn’t galvanized me. Premature death still seems like a long way off, and I can always rationalize that I’ll start the work of prolonging my life tomorrow.
Not exercising is like taking a brain damage pill hits the sweet spot. It’s true (for me). It’s simple. It’s concrete. It’s emotionally powerful. The implied consequences of ignoring it are immediate. It imperils my highly valued mental acuity. I would never pop a brain damage pill… so, obviously, I must exercise today!
Rob Crawford, a school administrator who loves baseball and acoustic guitars, writes on productivity, impact, and self-management at Crawdaddy Cove.
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Comments
BillOGoods says on January 30th, 2007 at 10:04 am
We all have experience, to varying levels, that emotional messages will reach us “better” than the logical or rational message. Just ask most successful trial attorneys.
But aside from the harmless emotional motivators we all employ from time-to-time (sometimes unconsciously), there is an unsettling facet of the emotional pitch. In the hands of malicious manipulators and others with purposes less than high minded, emotional messages can be very costly to us as individuals and as a society.
To a far greater extent, the logical and rational message isn’t subject to the manipulator’s play on our passions and fears only because it tends to be more transparent. We see the premises, argument, and conclusions and have tools to test them.
So, sometimes the better question is: how does one effectively convey the logical and rational? What are those techniques? Or are the honest, candid, and forthcoming among us limited to packaging our rationality in emotional terms—for our, or another’s, “own good”?
Rob Crawford says on January 30th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Great point, BillOGoods. The very tactics that motivate “good” actions can be used to motivate “evil” actions. That’s why “The Truth” campaign against smoking was so ingenious. It used the same tactics tobacco companies had been using for years - against them. The main message of my article really is, it’s up to us, as individuals, to look at the logical and rational evidence and determine what “good” is, then use “self-advertising” to make those “good” things happen.
BillOGoods says on January 30th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Exactly, Rob. No one is a bigger believer in “self advertising” than yours truly. It’s particularly helpful to athletes who “visualize” “success” in particular ways in their mind. It’s nothing more than what you’re talking about here and it’s highly effective.
Who said “A lie travels half way around the earth before the truth even has its boots on”? I think it was Mark Twain. I suppose “the truth” will have to be content, most times, to play “catch up” to the emotional pitch by the hucksters.
JasonS says on January 30th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Wow!
Thank you very much for this post. Up until reading it this afternoon, I had not realized the detrimental effect NOT exercising has on me. Sure, I knew it was good for me and, being a former competitive athlete, I know it makes me more alert and feel better in general. But, in the last few years, I have grown comfortable in my laziness. “There will always be time for me to exercise tomorrow.” Up until this point, I always thought my problem was time, or the perceived lack of it. In fact, my real problem was motivation.
Today, thanks to your post, I realize now that time does not matter. For some things… the important things… you have to MAKE time. Your idea of not-exercising being equivalent to taking a brain damage pill really hit home. Brain damage is not something I want, but it is definitely something I might get if I fail to take proper care of myself.
Now, I need to develop an easy to follow action plan to make this happen. This should not be a problem, now that I have a huge emotional motivator.
Thank you.
daedal says on January 30th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Hmm, then I think I brained my damage.
vieelectrique says on January 30th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I wonder what the moral implications of applying a manipulation technique to yourself would be?
John Richardson says on January 30th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Rob,
A very insightful post. I just finished the audio version of Made To Stick. What a great book. I think you are on to something with your emotional message. How about a positive sentence since your mind cannot visualize not doing something.
This is your brain… this is your brain sitting on the couch. This is your brain after sitting on the couch for years…