A Personal Perspective: How the scientific principles of trait change underscore my own personality change journey.
We can speed up personality change by taking intentional action.When I tell people I used to be lazy, they don't believe me. They think I'm being self-deprecating. They can’t square the person I am now – a successful academic – with the kid who cleaned by stuffing everything under the bed, or the high school student who rarely attended math class . How did I go from “Shannon isn’t living up to her full potential” to an ambitious, inbox-zero sort of person?.
When I finally did get into graduate school, the demands increased exponentially. Feeling overwhelmed, I went to Target and bought my very first day planner ; scheduling out all my tasks provided a sense of relief from my overwhelming to-do list. Anyone who’s gone to graduate school knows that rewards are few and far between.
There are two psychological principles that can explain how starting small can start an upward trajectory that ends in lasting personality change. The first is reinforcement which refers to rewarding experiences that follow our behaviors, increasing the likelihood those behaviors will be repeated in the future. This can look like adding something pleasant like having an article accepted for publication or the feeling of pride after seeing hard work pay off.
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