Unhealthy habits can creep up on us and cause lifelong problems. Our loved ones are no exception and may sometimes develop bad habits that may require to be managed. The good news is that with some patience and understanding, you can bring your loved one around to discard some of those bad habits. Senior living in Fort Worth, TX can help motivate your loved one to discard some of those bad habits. Here is how we go about it.
Empathy
When trying to motivate someone to do something, the most critical thing to have is empathy for them. Empathy is different from pity in that unlike the latter, it doe ot treat your loved one as a helpless victim. Instead, empathy strives to understand where they are coming from, which makes it easier to see things from their perspective. Being able to do that in turn will help you two get to an agreement a lot faster. We work hard to empathize with your loved one without ever judging.
Communicate
In order to motivate someone to change a bad habit, you will have to communicate with them. The best way to do this is to express your concerns in a gentle and understanding way. You should pick a time and place that is best to do this so that there are no distractions. As you talk, you will need to practice active listening. This is where one listens in order to fully understand what the other person is saying and what they mean. Give your loved one the opportunity to express themselves. If they are not ready to have that conversation, it is counter-productive to try and push the discussion. Instead, schedule it for another time and make sure that you come around to it.
Give Them Time
If after having the discussion, nothing changes, the best thing is to give them time to think things over. Usually, people need some time to process their thoughts and may often say no just to buy time. For this reason, let your loved one process their thoughts. Sometimes, they may even initiate the next discussion and bring things to an agreeable conclusion. What is important here is that you must not let things remain unresolved. Set an amount of time which you will give your loved one to think things over. Once that time limit is done, you will need to start the process again.
Change Together
Being part of a group effort is very motivating and this is a key tool that we use to help your loved one drop bad habits. This is especially very effective when the change is a personal habit such as eating too much junk food. With the group approach, dropping these bad habits becomes a joint project. Since people don’t like to let others down, your loved one will take greater effort to sustain this new change. You may even turn this process into a fun project that not only eliminates the bad habit but also serves to bring you closer.
