| Wheel of Dreaded Consequences, Better Behavior Wheel is a game developed
through the ingenuity of a mom with
two squabbling children. |
Using Wheel of Dreaded
Consequences Concept for Weight Loss
So how's can this game concept be used
for adults or even weight loss? Easy - how
about using it as a reward or punishment
for your own goals - keeping to your eating
plan, or exercise plan?
First, What Motivates
You?
You must first determine whether you are
more motivated by what you can obtain or
what you will avoid - in other words, are
you a Toward person, someone who wants
to work for a reward, or are you an Away
person, someone who wants to avoid something?
This is your motivation preference, and
once you know your preference, it makes
much more sense to use that preferred strategy
with yourself. This also explains why sometimes
it seems so difficult to get ourselves to
do what we want - we have been using the
wrong strategy.
Determining Your Motivation
Strategy
Determine whether you are a "toward"
or an "away" from person. That
is, would you put more effort into gaining
a reward, or avoiding a punishment?
If you prefer to gain a reward, you
are a "toward" person and
you'd prefer rewards for achieving goals,
such as when you achieve your eating goals
for the week, you might reward yourself
with a professional massage, or something
nice to wear. You could reformat your Wheel
to have rewards instead of consequences.
If you would go to greater lengths to
avoid some consequence, you are an "away"
person. You would then take the opposite
strategy; that of requiring yourself to
spin the Wheel of Dreaded Consequences when
you do not follow your plan.
Once you know whether you are a Toward
or Away from person, you can better determine
your own reward/punishment system.
| Preference |
Action Plan
|
| Away
|
List every thing you can think that
will happen to you if you do not change
your eating ha
bits or lose weight.
Example: You'll die younger. Complications
from diabetes, heart disease. Can't
play with your kids the way you want.
Can't ride bikes with your friends.
You'll spend more money on food and
specially made clothes.
What are the worst things that will
happen if you do not make any change
in your habits? Create your list and
pull it out when you are tempted to
fall back into old habits.
|
| Toward |
List everything you can think that
you will gain by sticking to your
plan.
What good things can you get, achieve,
be or do?
Example: You can be a good example
for your kinds, you will feel energetic
and alive, you'll look younger, you'll
be invited to more events, you'll
get promoted ...
|
Either way, reward or punishment, you can
achieve what you desire.
If you aren't sure whether you are a Toward
or Away person, ask yourself a few questions:
- Do you tend to talk in terms of what
you don't want? You're probably an Away
person.
- If you feel ill after eating certain
foods, yet you eat them anyway, you're
probably a Toward person. You'd rather
get the immediate reward than worry about
the consequences.
- An away person would take quite a lot
of convincing before he'd eat a food known
to cause him problems. A toward person
wouldn't hesitate - who cares, they can
worry about it later.
Using the Wrong Strategy
If you've been coming up against a brick
wall in your attempts to get your spouse
to join you in your efforts to eat healthier
for instance, it may be that you've been
trying to motivate them but using the wrong
strategy. They may be motivated in a different
way from you.
We all leave clues in our language as to
our preferences. Listen to others around
you and you can figure out their strategy
as easily as your own. Once you know their
strategy, you can then speak their language
and improve communication tremendously.
We want the same things, but since we go
about it in different ways it sometimes
leads to confusion and conflict. This is
an easy way to bring back peace.
Try the game, Wheel
of Dreaded Consequences. It's a great
idea and would be excellent for kids age
four on up who are ready to learn that actions
have consequences. This way, they learn
at an early age that their actions have
consequences and their decisions have an
impact creating better decision makers at
an early age.
By Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP
|
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