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Being A Good Person: 5 Things That Can Help You Make The Right Choices


Stashed in: #greatness, #kindness, Decisions, Be yourself., @bakadesuyo, Awesome, Buffer, Ethics, Willpower!, Self Improvement, Life Automation

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Life automation is conducive to doing the right thing:

The first step to being a good person is establishing reminders.

Seems too simple but reminders have powerful effects.

  • Mentioning the Ten Commandments before a tempting situation reduced cheating on a test.

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/09/being-a-good-person/

I'm not sure where I read it (bakadesuyo? buffer blog?) but a helpful phrase is "I DON'T".

Not "I can't steal that cookie" but "I don't steal cookies".

Be reaffirming who we truly are, it makes us less likely to deviate.

If I find the article I will post a link here.

Found it in Buffer Blog's 7 simple productivity tips as tip #6:

6.) Learn to use the word “no” more effectively

We all have good intentions when we wake up in the morning. But somehow, we get sidetracked and lured into distractions that jump at us from all corners of daily life. Being able to say “no” in an effective way, that doesn’t take up too much of our will-power is crucial. In an incredibly interestingstudy about saying no, they had this experiment:

One group was told that each time they were faced with a temptation, they would tell themselves “I can’t do X.” For example, when tempted with ice cream, they would say, “I can’t eat ice cream.” When the second group was faced with a temptation, they were told to say “I don’t do X.” For example, when tempted with ice cream, they would say, “I don’t eat ice cream.”

And here is what happened:

The students who told themselves “I can’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students who told themselves “I don’t eat X” chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% of the time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make a more healthy food choice.

Pretty awesome right? Switching to “I don’t” whenever you want to say no, has shown to be one of the best ways to say no. Two of the most important things when it comes to saying no for me, where these points:

  • Decide a lot of things beforehand on whether you do them or not. Some examples are: “I don’t drink”, “I don’t check email in the morning”, “I don’t go to bed after 11pm”. This makes any potential temptations much easier to avoid.
  • Hold yourself accountable with these points. Write them down, share them with your family and friends or put them over your bed on a poster. Being held accountable has worked wonders for me.

Read more: http://blog.bufferapp.com/simple-productivity-tips-science

Spend more time with the people you'd most like to be like:

Seeing others behave dishonestly makes you more likely to be dishonest.

Seeing people behave altruistically makes you more likely to be altruistic:

…these results provide evidence that witnessing another person’s altruistic behavior elicits elevation, a discrete emotion that, in turn, leads to tangible increases in altruism.

Research shows you become like the people you surround yourself with, so spend more time with the type of people you want to be.

Read more: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/09/being-a-good-person/

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