Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • Stay & Play

Hack the Brain, Move the Body

  • October 23, 2014
  • Ben Osborne
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

rainy-day2

The autumnal season is probably the worst 25% of the year for outdoor folk. While Summer and Winter both have clear ideas of what we can do to get outside, and Spring at least has an overlap of a ski/bike season, there’s always a mental slump when it comes to Fall. The rain is cold and constant, and when the options are a) getting up early to go for a wet run, or b) having a second helping of breakfast, and returning to your book in bed, the latter can tend to take precedence. Once in a while is ok, especially when the weather is lashing down from the heavens, but too often and you risk looking less like Han Solo (or Leia) and more like Jabba the Hutt. And maybe it’s just my projection, but Jabba does not look like a particularly agile skier.

A sexy beast, perhaps, but no skier.
A sexy beast, perhaps, but no skier.

So how to break the cycle of running out the door and away from your couch? Enter Science.  In 1927, Bluma Zeigarnik, along with a group of fellow university students, visited a restaurant in Berlin. The waiter, despite the large party and special requests, neglected to write any of the orders down, yet to the group’s surprise, everything arrived as expected – that is, perfectly.

Later that afternoon, Zeigarnik realised she had left her scarf at the restaurant and so returned to find the same waiter. He met her with a blank stare, as though he had never met her before. Indeed, the waiter had no idea about any scarf.  “How can you have forgotten” she asked him incredulously. “Especially with your super memory!” The waiter replied matter-of-factly: “I keep every order in my head – until it is served.”

The so-called Zeigarnik effect is more to do with the waiter than the Russian psychologist. In their book, Social Psychology and Human Nature, Roy Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman describe the Zeigarnik Effect as “the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete”.

Simply put, human beings are likely to complete a task or a habit if it has been started.  Many years after, a study was conducted where participants were  asked to solve a difficult puzzle, then were interrupted halfway through, being told the study was over. Almost 90% of the participants continued to solve the puzzle without the perceived motivator (the study) being present.

What does this have to do with eating cake for breakfast and binge-watching Archer? Simple. By making it easy to start a new habit, it’s easy to follow through to complete said habit.  For example, to go for a bike ride in the cold around the park, you have to get up early, put on your gear, get your bike out of storage, bike (or drive) to your preferred bike area, then exercise, do it all in reverse, and only then continue on with beginning your day.

Tempting, right?
Tempting, right?

 

The trick with the Zeigarnik effect is to make it the beginning of your day – to make it so easy to do, it’s almost harder to say no. You can do this by not thinking about the routine part of the habit loop (exercise), but to commit to the pre-requisite action in the sequence. In the above instance, you could put your outdoor gear by your bedroom door, thereby forcing you to move it before leaving the room… You may as well put it on, right? Then, maybe the night before, you put the bike at your front door… Well, you’ll have to put it away anyway, may as well go for a spin.

Soon enough, it will become part of your day, and you’ll feel uncomfortable not doing it, incomplete if something interrupts your routine.

So get on out there – the snow’s a-comin’, and every morning out in the cold will remind you that your legs will be far more use to you when they’re toned.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Aaron Peart
  • Psychology
  • Zeigarnik Effect
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • THE GEAR SHED

Helly for Cold Feet

  • October 20, 2014
  • Ned Morgan
View Post
Next Article
  • Mountain Lifer

Solo Mission: Winemaking in the Shadow of the Andes

  • October 26, 2014
  • Ned Morgan
View Post
You May Also Like
Explore-the-Bruce-Boating-Paddling
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Paddling
  • Stay & Play
  • Travel

The Artistic River Village: Discovering Paisley

  • Mountain Life Media
  • June 15, 2022
FrenchRiver_FRBridge_EMELEG_6264
View Post
  • Ontario
  • Paddling
  • Stay & Play

Speaking French: Savouring One of Canada’s Most Historic Rivers

  • Mountain Life Media
  • June 6, 2022
View Post
  • Rockies
  • Stay & Play

The All-Canadian Adventure

  • Sarah Bulford
  • June 1, 2022
Blue-Mountain-Film-Festival-group-Ontario-Kristin-Schnelten-Blue-Village
View Post
  • Ontario
  • Stay & Play
  • Videos

Blue Mountain Film Festival Debuts in June

  • Mountain Life Media
  • April 14, 2022
Town-Blue-Mountains-Sustainability-nature-Glen-Harris-photo-snowshoe-Beaver-River
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Ontario
  • Stay & Play

Time For Action: Inside TBM’s Community Sustainability Plan

  • Ned Morgan
  • March 18, 2022
View Post
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Stay & Play

The Soul of Skiing Defined: Ski Big 3

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 9, 2022
View Post
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Stay & Play
  • The Great Outdoors

Spring at Sun Peaks

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 8, 2022
View Post
  • Stay & Play
  • Videos

Friday Flick: AXED

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 4, 2022

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts
  • Nic-Groulx-Sam-Dickie-on-the-Great-Divide-Trail crop 1
    The Legend of Sam Dickie & the Cougar
    • June 23, 2022
  • Mason Mashon Photo - Xaays Canoe Journey ML 2
    The Great Canoe
    • June 21, 2022
  • Mountain-Life-Blue-Mountains-Summer-2022-spreads-cover 3
    ML Blue Mountains Summer 2022 Issue Out Now
    • June 22, 2022
  • The-Yin-and-Yang-of-Gerry-Lopez-still-2 4
    Friday Flick: The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez
    • June 17, 2022
  • Property-Valet-HQ-group-Kristin-Schnelten 5
    Property Valet: Creating (and Managing) Beautiful Memories
    • June 16, 2022
RECENT POSTS
  • The-North-Face_SS21_Vectiv_Trail-Run_Saunders-
    Gear Shed: Summer Trail Shoes
    • June 20, 2022
  • 1970s-dual-suspension-MotoBMX-BRETT-TIPPIE
    Brett Tippie’s Old Bike Day
    • June 16, 2022
  • Explore-the-Bruce-Boating-Paddling
    The Artistic River Village: Discovering Paisley
    • June 15, 2022
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
Who’s having a multi-sport day?! 😆 @timemmett probably is.
Bruce County is much more than the Bruce Peninsula. We’re here to let you in on a secret: a thriving community nestled in Bruce County’s interior region, just waiting to be discovered. The village of Paisley offers something for everyone, and isn’t overrun by summer crowds.
The mere thought of a cougar or any other apex predator in our midst can turn a backcountry adventure into a psychological test of mind over matter. Luckily, our fears are mostly in our heads and few have experienced a negative wildlife encounter. But, for ultramarathoner @samuel.dickie, it got real. #Linkinbio to read more!
MAG DROP! 🤩
Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day (today and every day)!
Together with our partners we’ve picked our favourite summer trail shoes, in alpha order, for your crush-it summer. #linkinbio
Happy Father’s Day to all the RAD DADS out there!! 🙌
Join the Climb for Climate Challenge on @fatmap_official! Whether you’re gaining your vert on the climbing wall, the dirt trail, or the pavement, hashtag #ClimbForClimate in the title of your adventure, and @mountainhardwear will donate $1 to @protectourwinterscanada for every 20m vertical up to $5,000–100,000m. Signing up enters you to win: a 1-month membership to FATMAP premium and a $500 MHW gift card. (Challenge runs June 16-26.)
GIVEAWAY TIME! We've teamed up with @hydroflask.ca to give you a chance to WIN an epic prize pack! The perfect pairing for a SUP expedition or an adventure in the mountains! Prize pack includes:
“With almost 50 years of riding bicycles under my belt (and 40 years of mountain biking) I can safely say when I just hop on and start givin’r it feels much like an ‘autopilot’ or ‘cruise control’ of stoke. But…I recently had a moment that hit my turbo fun button and kicked my stoke into another gear.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Who’s having a multi-sport day?! 😆 @timemmett probably is.
Bruce County is much more than the Bruce Peninsula. We’re here to let you in on a secret: a thriving community nestled in Bruce County’s interior region, just waiting to be discovered. The village of Paisley offers something for everyone, and isn’t overrun by summer crowds.
The mere thought of a cougar or any other apex predator in our midst can turn a backcountry adventure into a psychological test of mind over matter. Luckily, our fears are mostly in our heads and few have experienced a negative wildlife encounter. But, for ultramarathoner @samuel.dickie, it got real. #Linkinbio to read more!
MAG DROP! 🤩
Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day (today and every day)!
Together with our partners we’ve picked our favourite summer trail shoes, in alpha order, for your crush-it summer. #linkinbio
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.