A better way to use the affirmation section of The 5 Minute Journal
I’ll confess that I have had difficulty with the affirmation aspect of The 5 Minute Journal. It feels cheesy and forced to me, and I can’t even begin to do it without feeling like Stuart Smalley.
However, there have been a few interesting studies that talk about the power of “I don’t” vs. “I can’t” as far as following through with our intentions.
It makes sense. Think of the difference between, “I can’t start my day with sugary foods”, and “I don’t start my day with sugary foods”.
One is a restriction put on you, the other is a statement of a personal choice. Or as they phrase it “…we argue that a refusal framed to connote a sense of empowerment and control is likely to be effective in self-regulation”.
So I recently started using this portion of the journal to remind myself of the habits that will produce the results I want, but stated as a “who I am” statement, like, “I don’t skip workouts”.
Here is the research document, which contains three studies: “I Don’t” versus “I Can’t”: When Empowered Refusal Motivates Goal-Directed Behavior by Vanessa M. Patrick and Henrik Hagtvedt. by Boston College and the University of Houston
It’s a pretty technical document, so here are some tldr highlights…
120 undergraduates were asked to rehearse the strategy by saying: “For instance, when you are tempted by an unhealthy snack, you say ‘I don’t eat X’ or ‘I can’t eat X’.”.
Upon exiting the experiment, they were given a snack choice of chocolate candy bars or granola health bars.
64% of the participants in the “don’t” condition chose the granola health bar vs. the chocolate candy bar. Whereas 39% chose the healthy option in the “can’t” condition.
In another study with a much smaller sample size, 20 women were split into two groups of ten, and told to use the “I can’t” or “I don’t” strategy for fitness goals over the next 10 days. The results were 1 out of 10 vs. 8 out of 10 following through, favoring the “I don’t” strategy.
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