The Rider and the Elephant

I've been reading an interesting book lately, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. In the book, the author likens a person's willpower to a rider of an elephant, the elephant being a person's emotions and instincts, the rider being a person's rational mind. There have been many terms for these parts of the psychic apparatus. Freud called them the id and the ego.


What is interesting to note is that there have been studies that show that willpower is a finite resource. Like a muscle, it can be exhausted, giving free reign to the elephant. The main premise of the book is that the best way to change a behavior is to get the elephant and the rider going in the same direction, otherwise the rider will become exhausted and the elephant will return to its prior behavior. Sound familiar? Yo-yo dieting anyone?


So, how do you change the direction of the elephant? You can't appeal to it rationally. That's the rider, remember? You have to appeal to a person emotionally. In The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss refers to this as a Harajuku Moment, or what Malcom Gladwell referred to as a Tipping Point. It is the point when a person emotionally buys into the idea the rider is presenting.


I had my Harajuku Moment last December. I broke a tooth while eating breakfast, chewing a piece of bacon. It was at that point that I realized that if I didn't take better care of myself then things would keep breaking, things much more serious than a tooth. A silly little moment, but it caused me to reevaluate my whole lifestyle, and brought me to the conclusion that I have to start taking better care of myself. Rationally, I always knew I should, but it took this to get the elephant to agree.


Was this a true moment or did I manufacture it? Really, does it matter? It got me to change my behavior. If you want to change something, find an emotional reason to do it. Save the planet, see a grandchild graduate high school, complete a marathon, avoid a dentist. Find an emotional response and tie your willpower to it. That is an unbeatable combination.