Intentional change takes time and motivation.

Building excitement, reframing negative emotions, building in play, and introducing a little anxiety can help.

These emotional hacks can help you harness the energy for change.

It’s often said that people hate change, but that’s clearly not true – people are constantly trying to improve themselves and their situations. Multiple studies reveal that the desire for change seems to be a core aspect of being human. When there is no change, we feel stagnant or bored and move on to something new. Even in studies of very young infants, researchers measure when the babies look away from an object to indicate when they are “done” and ready for change. But intentional change — like eating better, losing weight, getting out of debt, or being a better parent — is hard because you have to maintain motivation and persistence for a long period of time.

So how do we build and keep the motivation and energy needed over time to change our habits and meet goals? There are some emotional “hacks” that can help along the way.

1. Build in excitement, but not success. When we succeed at something and get a reward, we feel happy, and that signals that we have accomplished the goal. We feel happy when we win, when we finish the race. That feeling of happiness is a signal that we can sit back, coast a bit, and enjoy our success.........

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