To get yourself started in a new direction, try the Three M's. 

    At the University of California, my students and I surveyed more than 2,000 years of self-change techniques--perhaps most of the major self-change methods that have ever been proposed by religious leaders, philosophers, psychologists and psychiatrists. We also reviewed the scientific research literature on self-change, a topic that behavioral scientists began to explore in earnest in the 1960s. 

    [2] Here is what we found: Of the hundreds of self-change techniques that have been suggested over the centuries, perhaps only a dozen are distinctly different. Many have now been subjected to scientific study, meaning that researchers have tried to see which ones work best. 

    [3] Three deserve special mention: they're powerful, simple and easy to learn. What's more , individuals who have made successful changes in their lives--changes in eating habits, exercise regimens, career paths, coping strategies, and so on--often relied on one or more of these methods. 

    [4] To get yourself started in a new direction, try the Three M's: 

    Modify Your Environment 

    [5] People who have never tried this are astounded by the enormous effect it often has. One of my students got herself bicycling every day simply by putting her bicycle in her doorway before she left for school. When she returned home, that was the first thing she saw, and that's all she needed to start pedaling away. I've known several people who have overcome nail-biting simply by buying 50 nail files and distributing them everywhere: in their pockets, their desks and their bedrooms. With a nail file always within reach, they tended to groom rather than bite. 

    [6] My children have used this simple technique many times. Justin, my 17-year-old, often places small fluorescent reminder notes at eye level on the inside of the frame of his bedroom door. A recent one read "Remember to shampoo the dog on Saturday or Dad will kill you". (Here he was using exaggeration to good effect.) 

    [7] The power of rearranging one's space has been well demonstrated in studies since it was first reported in the 1960s. Psychologist Israel Goldiamond of the University of Chicago taught this technique to patients with a variety of personal problems. For example, a young woman who had difficulty studying made dramatic strides when she got a better desk lamp and moved her desk away from her bed. 

    [8] Psychologist Richard Stuart, who ultimately became a director at Weight Watchers International, showed in the 1960s that overweight women could lose pounds by modifying both their eating behavior and "stimulus environment"--for example, eating from smaller plates and confining all food to the kitchen. To change yourself, change your world. 

    要想開辟人生新道路，試試過三個“M”。 

    在加利福尼亞大學，我和我的學生調查了兩千多年來人們用來改變自我的技巧——也許主要方法中的大部分都是由宗教領袖、哲學家、心理學家和精神病專家提出的。我們還回顧了有關改變自我的科學研究文獻。早在20世紀60年代，改變自我就是行為科學家開始認真探索的課題。 

    [2]我們的發現結果如下：在幾個世紀以來人們提出的幾百種改變自我的方法中，也許僅有十來種與其他方法截然不同。許多方法至今一直是科學研究的對象，這意味著研究人員一直試圖探明其中最有效的方法。 

    [3]有三種方法值得特別提及：它們效力強大而又簡單易學。此外，那些已成功改變了其人生道路的人們，也常常是依靠這些方法中的一種或多種來改變其飲食習慣、養生之道、事業方向和處世策略，等等。 

    [4]要想開辟人生道路，試試這三個“M”： 

    改善周邊環境 

    [5]從未嘗試改善環境的人通常會對所產生的顯著效果感到驚奇不已。我的一個學生為了促使自己每天騎車鍛煉，采取了離家上學前將自行車放在門道里的簡單方法。這樣一回家，她首先看見的就是那輛車，而所需做的就是騎上自行車鍛煉去。我認識幾個人，他們為了改掉咬指甲的壞習慣而買了50把指甲挫并把它們分放到各處：口袋里，書桌上，臥室內。由于指甲挫總能伸手可及，他們就會去修指甲，而不啃指甲了。 

    [6]我的孩子們多次運用過這樣的簡單技巧。我17歲的兒子賈斯廷經常把小小的熒光紙記事便條放在他臥室門框內側齊眼高的位置。前不久的一張上寫道：“記著星期六給狗洗澡，否則爸爸會殺了你的。”（為了達到良好效果，他這里用的是夸張手法。） 

    [7]重新布置自己的空間具有很大的影響力，該觀點首次提出于20世紀6O年代，在諸多研究中已得到充分證明。當時，芝加哥大學的心理學家伊斯雷爾·戈戴蒙德將這一技巧傳授給那些為形形色色的私人問題所困擾的病人。就拿一位年輕女士來說吧，她在學習上困難重重，自從換了一個好點兒的臺燈并把書桌搬離開床邊后，她在學習上就取得了長足進步。 

    ［8］心理學家理查德·斯圖爾特最終當上了國際體重觀察員組織的總監，他在20世紀60年代曾指出：體重過重的婦女可以通過糾正飲食習慣和改變“刺激食欲的環境”的方法來減肥——例如，用小一點的盤子吃飯和把食物全都集中放在廚房里。要改變自我就必須改變你周圍的世界。 

    Monitor Your Behavior 

    [9] I've been reading research studies on self-monitoring for 20 years, and I've conducted some myself. To be honest, I still don't fully understand why this technique works, but it does, and remarkably well for most people. The fact is, if you monitor what you do, you'll probably do better. 

    [10] Weigh yourself regularly and you may well start to lose weight. Keep a record of what you eat and you'll probably start eating more wisely. 

    [11] Use gizmos. If you say "you know" too much, wear a golf counter on your wrist, and press the button whenever you catch yourself saying "you know". I'll bet you say it less frequently in just a few days. If a wrist counter is embarrassing, then make a small tear in a piece of paper in your pocket each time you say "you know". The result is the same : you become more aware of what you're doing, and that makes you perform better. 

    [12] If techniques like this sound silly, keep in mind that the power of self-monitoring has been demonstrated by a variety of research conducted over the last four decades. In a study I published in 1978 with Claire Goss, for example, we taught a disruptive fifth-grade boy to rate his own class-room behavior twice a day. He simply checked off a score for himself, indicating how well-behaved he had been in the morning or afternoon. With his awareness increased, he stayed in his seat more than usual, completed more assignments and rarely got in trouble. 

    [13] A similar study by Canadian researchers Thomas McKenzie and Brent Rushall showed that teenagers arrived more promptly at a swim practice when they were given an attendance sheet to record their arrival times. Working with emotionally disturbed children, Sonya Carr of Southeastern Louisiana University and Rebecca Punzo, a New Orleans teacher reported that self-monitoring improves academic performance in reading, mathematics and spelling. Recent research even demonstrated that students will compose better stories given a simple checklist that includes elements of good writing. Dozens of studies have similar results, all spurred by height-ening our awareness of our behavior. 

    監督自身行為 

    [9]20年來我一直在閱讀有關自我監督的研究報告，而且自己也做過一些研究。老實說，我仍未完全弄懂，為何自我監督這種方法行之有效，但它確實有效，而且對多數人都效果顯著。實際上，只要你常留意自己的所作所為，很可能就會表現得更完美。 

    [10]經常稱一稱體重，你或許就會真的開始減肥。記錄下自己每天的飲食，你可能就會更為明智地選擇用餐。 

    [11]試著用一些小把戲吧。如果你總是把“you know”掛在嘴邊，就在手腕上戴個高爾夫計數器，每當意識到自己說一次“youknow”時就按一下計數鍵。我敢打賭，過不了幾天，你就不會那么頻繁地說起它了。倘若嫌戴腕部計數器令人難堪，那么就在每說一次“you know”時把口袋里的一張紙弄破一個小洞。其結果是一樣的：你會變得更留意自己的行為，因而也就表現更佳。 

    [12]如果說這樣的方法聽起來頗為荒唐，請記住：自我監督的力量已在40年來所進行的各種研究中得到了證實。我和克萊爾·戈斯于1978年發表的一篇研究報告中就有一個實例。我們教一個愛搗亂的五年級小男孩每天對自己的課堂表現做兩次等級評定。他只是簡單地給自己打個分數，以表明自己上午或下午表現得如何好。隨著自我監測意識的增強，他比平常更能待在座位上，完成的作業也更多了，而且很少再惹麻煩了。 

    [13]加拿大研究人員托馬斯·麥肯齊和布倫特·拉希爾所做的一項類似研究表明，在青少年拿到出勤單以紀錄出勤時間后，他們會更加及時地趕到，參加游泳訓練。東南路易斯安那大學的索尼亞·卡爾和新奧爾良教師麗貝卡·龐佐在研究過情緒失常兒童后發表報告稱，自我監督能改善這些孩子在閱讀、數學和拼寫方面的學習表現。最近的研究甚至表明，學生只要得到一張含有優秀寫作要素的簡要清單，就能寫出更好的故事來。大量研究都取得了類似的結果，而且都是通過加強自我行為意識而得出的。 

    Make Commitments 

    [14] When you make a commitment to another person, you establish what psychologists call a contingency of reinforcement; you've automatically arranged for a reward if you comply and a punishment if you don't. It puts some pressure on you, and that's often just what you need. 

    [15] For instance, if you want to exercise more, arrange to do it with a friend. If you don't show up, your friend will get angry, and that may be just the ticket to keeping you punctual. Decades of research have demonstrated the power of this strategy. For example, in 1994 Dana Putnam and other researchers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University showed that patients who made written commitments were far more likely to take prescribed medicine than patients who hadn't. Mary Lou Kau and Joel Fischer of the University of Hawaii reported a case of a woman who got herself to jog regularly by setting up a simple arrangement with her husband: he paid her quarters and took her out on weekends whenever she met her jogging goals. 

    [16] There's good news here for all of us. We can meet many of the demands and overcome many of the challenges of life with simple skills--straightforward practices that anyone can master and that don't require willpower--in other words, with skill, not will. 
 
    許下諾言 

    [14]當你向別人許諾時，你就形成了心理學家所說的“后效強化”這么一種情況。一旦實現承諾，你自然早已準備好得到嘉獎；如果食言，面臨的就是懲罰。這將給你帶來壓力，而通常這也正是你所需要的。 

    [15]比方說，如果你想加強鍛煉，那么就安排和朋友一起鍛煉吧。假如你到時沒露面，你的朋友就會生氣，這或許正是督促你守時的一種手段。幾十年的研究已證實了這一措施的效力。例如在1994年，弗吉尼亞理工學院和州立大學的達納·帕特南等研究人員證明，作出書面承諾的病人遠比未作書面保證的病人更能按醫囑服藥。夏威夷大學瑪莉·盧·考和喬爾·費希爾報告過一位婦女的案例，這位女士使自己堅持慢跑鍛煉的方法就是和丈夫達成了一項簡短的協議----無論何時，只要她實現了慢跑目標，丈夫都給她一些零錢，并在周末陪她出去玩。

    [16]對我們大家來說這都是好消息。要滿足生命中這諸多要求并克服眾多挑戰，我們只需運用簡單技巧——而這些技巧是任何人都能掌握并且無需意志力的實踐操作——換句話說，只用技巧，而非意志。