Pick a behavior you’d like to change
When I get upset, I isolate myself socially, which makes me feel worse.
My experience
I tracked it from Friday after class through Monday. During this period whenever I felt upset or anxious, instead of allowing myself to continue to be alone and feel worse, I pushed myself to interact with other humans or ideally friends. As an extrovert, I find this method very effective and helpful, even if it is initially difficult. We know from Lewin’s equation that a behavior is a function of a person and their respective environment.
That first push is very tough, as it is tempting to crave solitude, but I’ve learned that does not serve me in that situation. I treated it as a game: let me just push myself through this and see if I feel better. And every single time, I felt better when I interacted with others. It contributed to me gaining situational clarity, perspective, and getting out of my own head.
Models
What I would do differently next time
I feel that my behavior I tried to change was a bit broad as I tried to change it. Of course there are moments when it is easy to understand if I am upset, but at some points I wondered if it warranted putting myself in a social situation to feel better. Adding to this, I also wondered about the efficacy of a definitive rule. The nature of “if X happens, do Y” may not always be the right answer, so I wish I would have made my goal a bit more niche and refined to avoid this gray area. However, I found this experience very effective and exciting for personal development.
(let me know if the images are clear I’ve tried re-uploading a few times)
