7 Ways to Have Self-Control, Even in the Hardest Situations

7 Ways to Have Self-Control, Even in the Hardest Situations

by | Dec 19, 2018 | Health & Wellness

What would change if you had more self-control? Would you meet your fitness goals? De-escalate tense situations? Finally stop procrastinating on work projects? Although it can seem impossible to gain any more discipline than you already have, willpower can be exercised regularly just like your muscles. There are a few ways you can gain control when you really need it. When it comes to eating, exercise, anger and more, here are some common “tempting” scenarious followed by tips on how to strengthen your resolve.

1. Resisting Junk Food

From the grocery store to fast-food ads, one thing is for sure: Junk food is everywhere. Overcome the temptations of unhealthy foods by changing your self-talk. First, stop thinking, “I can’t eat this” (something unhealthy), and replace it with, “I can eat that” (something healthy), says Kelly Milligan, naturopath and chef. It removes the restrictive feeling and allows for a more stress-free, positive mindset.
Second, think past the immediate craving and ask yourself, “How will I feel after eating this? Will this help me get closer to my goals?” This way you are changing your approach from arbitrarily labeling foods as “good” or “bad” to focusing on the value certain foods have for your body.

2. Motivating Yourself to Hit the Gym

One way to stay on the path of exercising regularly is simply putting on your workout clothes! A 2012 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that this can give you the motivation you need to get moving. Still not feeling it? Tell yourself you’ll just work out for five to 10 minutes. You’ll be surprised what you’ll feel like doing once you get started.
And remind yourself why you started. Whether your goal is to gain strength, lose weight, recover from an injury or get healthier, each goal is tied to a specific emotion. Dig deep and envision what it would be like if your goal was met today. Bonus: Exercise can strengthen your willpower in other areas of your life!

3. Stopping the Late-Night Munchies

When straight-up willpower isn’t enough to stop yourself from eating an entire bag of chips before bed (or overeating in general), creating new habits is the way. First things first: Keep yourself fueled throughout the day so you’re not “starving” in the evening.
Then find a distraction from your thoughts of food: talk with a friend, stretch or read. Or try brushing your teeth. You won’t want to eat if your mouth is minty fresh. If you’re truly hungry, try a pice of fruit. The American Psychological Association states that glucose (like that found in fruit) is fuel for the brain and that acts of self-control reduce blood glucose levels.

4. Controlling Angry Outbursts

Anger is natural. But it’s what you do with that emotion that matters. It all begins with thinking before you speak or act. Ask yourself if what you’re about to say is going to make the situation better or worse. Or take a timeout. You can use the age-old trick of counting to 10 before you speak. It allows your mind to get some emotional distance and lets your brain focus on something else.
If you still feel amped up, try exercising. According to stress physiologist Nathaniel Thom in an article for Psychology Today, exercise can help diffuse the buildup of anger. Exercise gets the feel-good hormones elevated in your brain and presents a calming feeling over your body. After you’ve calmed down, you can find solutions and present your feelings in an unagitated state.

5. Refraining From Hitting Snooze

The snooze button is no friend of self-control. Mel Robbins, author of “The 5 Second Rule,” says in her book that how you wake up and spend the first 30 minutes of the morning determines the productivity of your day. It starts with getting up, waking up and being present in everything you do, Mel says. (In other words, put down your phone!)
According to Robbins, if you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within five seconds or your brain will kill the idea. So within five seconds of your alarm sounding, spring up and out of bed! Immediately after, begin to think of the positive things this extra morning time will add to your day. Before you know it, you’ll have set the tone for the entire day!

6. Curtailing Frivolous Spending

If you feel you need more control in the spending department, writing down each and every thing you purchase is a great way to see exactly how much is going out and where. At the end of each month, go through your list and see what spending was a “need” and what spending was a “want,” says Paula Pant, money-management expert and creator of AffordAnything.com. Add up the total amount of the “wants” and imagine that money saved up for an emergency fund or a memorable family vacation. This will also allow you to see other not-so-good habits you may have, such as buying junk food or always ordering lunch at work.

7. Actually Accomplishing Your Goals

Set your goals on a vision board where you’ll see them every day. This can be hanging on the wall next to your television or placed by the door of your home so you’ll always have a visual reminder of what your goals are. Read them out loud, and tell yourself you can do this — because you can.
Another way to ensure success is to keep it simple in all areas. If it’s too overwhelming, then you’ll be overwhelmed. Have the mindset of working in baby steps, and celebrate each day that you succeed. With self-control comes the feeling of accomplishment. With accomplishment comes self-confidence. And this cycle helps you keep meeting your goals.

**BONUS** Build Self-Control With Sleep

Another easy way to gain more self-control in any area of your life is to get adequate sleep. A 2011 study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found that a sleep-deprived individual is at increased risk for succumbing to impulsive desires, inattentiveness and questionable decision-making. Basically, it’s much easier to make the right choices when our brains are rested and recharged. (Which you probably know from experience!)

by SJ McShane
Originally posted on LiveStrong.com

Solving Problems – While Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Solving Problems – While Increasing Employee Satisfaction

by | Aug 14, 2018 | Benefit Management, Human Resources, Workplace

“Design thinking” is a fairly common term. Even if the phrase is new to you, it’s reasonably easy to intuit how it works: design thinking is a process for creative problem solving, utilizing creative tools like empathy and experimentation, often with a strong visual component. The term dates from 1968 and was first used in The Sciences of The Artificial, a text written by Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon.
For Simon, design thinking involved seven components, but today it’s usually distilled to five: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. In this way, creative tools are employed to serve individuals in a group, with a solution-driven focus. It’s important to note that these components are not necessarily sequential. Rather, they are specific modes, each with specific tools that contribute equally to solving an issue.
Most significantly, as Steve Boese of HR Executive noted in a recent column, design thinking is a rising trend in HR leadership. “Those using this strategy,” he says, “challenge existing assumptions and approaches to solving a problem, and ask questions to identify alternative solutions that might not be readily apparent.”Design thinking helps teams make decisions that include employees in meaningful ways, personalize target metrics, work outside the box, and produce concrete solutions. Even teams with established, productive structures use design thinking in the review process, or to test out expanded options.
Boese says that the key shift design thinking offers any team is the opportunity to troubleshoot solutions before they’re put into real-time practice. The main goal of design thinking is not process completion, low error rates, or output reports, as with other forms of HR technology, but employee satisfaction and engagement. More often than not, this leads to increased morale and even more opportunities for success.
by Bill Olson
Originally posted on ubabenefits.com

Summer Survival Guide

Summer Survival Guide

by | Aug 3, 2018 | Hot Topics

We are halfway through our summer break and by now you have heard 1,000 times, “I’m bored!” from your kids! How do you survive the summer and keep your sanity? Follow these tips to make this summer break memorable and tackle the challenge of keeping your kids engaged.

  1. Keep A Routine

Kids thrive with schedules. The idea of just lazing around all summer sounds great at the beginning, but it feeds the “I’m bored” monster. Having no routine or daily schedule leaves kids with no expectations of what needs to be accomplished for the day. I cannot count the number of times I’ve texted my children from work at 1pm, “Have you gotten dressed and brushed your teeth?” Set up a daily routine and post it in a well-traveled location in your home. Set up expectations for the day—make your bed, get dressed, feed the dogs, brush your teeth, put away laundry. Simple tasks give familiarity to the day and help guide them to productivity.

  1. Water & Sun Safety

Teach your kids to always ask before heading out to the pool—whether it’s in your backyard, a friend’s house, or the neighborhood splash park. When they are in the water, make sure someone is watching. Among preventable injuries, drowning is the leading cause of death for children 1 – 4 years old. Drowning happens quickly and quietly—not like it’s portrayed in movies and on TV with lots of splashing and yelling. Keep kids in your sight at all times. Likewise, pay attention to applying sunscreen consistently. The sun’s UV rays can damage your skin in as little as 15 minutes. Apply sunscreen every hour and if possible, have your children wear UV protected clothing and hats.

  1. Summer Bucket List

Make your “Top 5 Summer Activities” list as a family and schedule them! Maybe it’s to try the new snow cone shop around the corner or go to a special concert series in the park. Your community is bustling with things to do during the summer. Research what special speakers are coming to your local library, break out your list of favorite movies from when you were a kid and introduce them to your children (Space Camp, Neverending Story, Flight of the Navigator!), make slime! Making a list of these fun activities gives your children something to look forward to and work towards achieving.

  1. Learn a New Skill

This summer’s skill in my house is learning how to type! I found a website that has free lessons and skills tests and my kiddos are completing modules of learning online during the day. Our hope is by the end of the summer, our teenagers can type using all 10 fingers! Figure out a skill that your children could benefit from learning and find a way to teach them this skill. It doesn’t mean you are now instructing them on how to play a violin, but if they want to learn, can you find a local music store that has some summer lessons? Or what about your friend’s artistic teenager who could teach your child how to draw anime or how to sing?

  1. READ!

You knew that one was coming. We’ve all heard of the “summer slide” where kids slide backwards in learning during their summer break. Reading not only prevents this slide but can propel your child into success for the coming school year. Get to your local library and talk with your librarians about the latest book series that are on fire for your school-aged children. Read along with your kid so you can discuss the twists and turns in the books. Have your student draw pictures of their favorite scenes in their book. Get your noses in some books! Readers are leaders!!
With these survival tips you will be blazing the trails to a successful summer. Parents—you got this!

Everyone Wins When Growth Is The Goal

by | Jul 24, 2018 | Human Resources, Workplace

It’s a dilemma. On the one hand, today’s buzzing, multifaceted working environments challenge employees more than ever before. On the other, these same working environments are often also overwhelming and stressful. Sometimes it seems like success means mania—but this doesn’t have to be the case. More and more frequently, experts urge offices to focus not on performance but on growth.

Performance cultures create “winners” and “losers,” with no ground in-between. In contrast, says The Harvard Business Review, growth cultures help workers build capacity through working as a team, acknowledging shortcomings instead of acting them out, and conserving energy to create external value.This approach, based on the work of Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, focuses on safe environments, top-down vulnerability, continuous learning, manageable experiments, and continuous feedback. In such offices, failures are not met with immediate punishment but seen as opportunities for growth.

Implementing these ideas takes time and patience, but in the end, they can lead to unprecedented success and ever-broader horizons.

Find out more:

Forbes: Five Reasons Why Balanced Teams Are Important

Inc: Five Unspoken Rules That Lead to a Toxic Culture

By Bill Olson
Originally posted on UBABenefits.com