Summary

The article discusses the concept of "forestalling" as a strategy for habit change and its broader applications in various aspects of life.

Abstract

The article introduces "forestalling" as a tactic for facilitating habit change by preemptively altering behaviors or environments to avoid triggers that lead to unwanted habits. The author shares personal experiences with forestalling, such as not drinking coffee to avoid nicotine cravings, and emphasizes its effectiveness in the short term. The technique is also applied in sales, where anticipating and addressing potential objections can prevent them from arising. In health promotion, forestalling is linked to proactive behaviors like regular exercise to prevent future health issues. The article suggests that making pre-commitments can combat procrastination and help achieve personal goals. Additionally, it touches on the social aspect of forestalling, where individuals may avoid empathetic encounters to evade the cost of helping.

Opinions

The author believes in the power of forestalling for significant habit changes, such as stopping smoking or reducing alcohol consumption.
Forestalling is seen as a clever, preemptive move to temporarily halt unwanted behaviors, though it is not a substitute for long-term value commitments.
In sales, forestalling objections is valued for creating genuineness and addressing concerns proactively.
Healthcare practitioners endorse forestalling through regular exercise and resistance training to promote longevity and well-being.
The author suggests that behavioral forestalling is more effective than cognitive forestalling, as it empowers individuals to act and avoid triggers.
There is an opinion that people may forestall empathy to avoid the potential costs of helping others, particularly in the context of homelessness.

The Magic of Forestalling to Initiate Habit Change: Intercept Self-Sabotage

The power of little-used techniques to further your goals

I am always looking for shortcuts to facilitate habit change. Sometimes a simple tactic brings about some more significant habit changes, like stopping smoking or exchanging herbal tea for caffeine.

Recently a shortcut has come to mind: forestalling. This tactic is about setting things up to prevent or modify some behavior you want to bring to a halt. I have used this tactic with success.

The behavior I have in mind are things like stopping smoking, bringing alcohol consumption to a halt, or dropping the coffee habit with an alternate beverage of your choice.

Forestalling as a Preemptive Move

The forestalling tactic is about doing something before the trigger that formerly gave way to the behavior you are trying to change.

Like with alcohol, if you stay away from drinking companions, that helps you avoid drinking. Or keeping fatty foods out of the house helps forestall inappropriate binging.

In my stop-smoking endeavors, I recall not drinking coffee in the morning to forestall or avoid the nicotine craving that I had associated with coffee.

This practice of keeping something from happening by acting in advance is a clever means of at least temporarily stopping something you want to bring to a halt.

I have done a good amount of forestalling in habit change, which has usually helped but only for the short term. It does not substitute for a long-term value commitment.

Currently, I am trying to limit my coffee consumption because it aggravates heartburn. But I love coffee, so a conflict ensues that I find hard to manage.

I have tried using less concentrated caffeine, but then you lose energy boost. So, why bother?

I have yet to find a strategy for forestalling a love of coffee.

Forestalling in Sales

Forestalling has an appealing application in the sales game. Suppose the salesperson is aware of an objection that often arrives during a sales pitch or presentation. In that case, he may share the complaint and counter it with a pre-prepared argument.

This method adopted in selling practices is called ‘forestalling an objection.’ (‘Fore’ means ‘before’ and ‘stall’ means ‘stop’ or ‘halt’)

I have always liked this practice because it creates the impression of genuineness. You, as the salesperson, are open to the fact that your proposition does not cover all contingencies.

The prospect’s possible objection is blocked before it arises.

Health Promotion

Forestalling has a role to play in fitness and self-care. My daughter-in-law runs six miles a day to forestall late-in-life immobility. She also wants to avoid back problems that have bedeviled her mother.

Health care practitioners are in favor of the practice of forestalling. According to the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, as little as 30 minutes of cardio three to five days a week will add six years to your life.

They claim that if you do this program, plus a couple of days of resistance training, you’ll live longer and look younger, feel happier, have more energy, and stay slim.

Hence as further inquiry suggests, forestalling has many uses. It can take the form of a precommitment or pre-event commitment, a kind of preemption to forestall or prevent something else from happening.

Imagine you want to get into better shape and start going to the gym. This is a personal goal you make to yourself without telling anyone.

But as the days pass, you fail to make it to the gym. You didn’t buy a membership and had no one to hold you accountable.

A Cause of Procrastination

You don’t schedule your gym days in the week or come to a private agreement on the time. Without a prior commitment to an activity, we often fall victim to procrastination. Unfortunately, planning doesn’t come naturally — putting something off until tomorrow, on the other hand, does.

Some forestalls are better if they are behavioral. Many preventatives (cognitive forestalls) are weak; they don’t empower you and are ineffective. They invite fecklessness instead.

Forestalling constitutes a behavioral doing that alerts you to the triggers that activate old habits.

Forestalling in Homeless Encounters

In another arena, people often fail to respond to those in need. Why? It has been suggested that people actively avoid feeling empathy for the unhoused, for example, lest they be motivated to help.

This so-called ‘empathy avoidance’ is brought about when people avoid or forestall being asked to help because they know that helping will be costly.

To test this proposition, study participants were given the choice of hearing one of two versions of an appeal of a homeless man: the empathy-inducing version or a nonempathic=inducing version.

The result: those aware that they would soon be given a high-cost opportunity to help the man chose to hear the empathy-inducing version less often than did those unaware of the upcoming opportunity pitch.

In sum, forestalling is ubiquitous in social life and has an especially pertinent application in habit change. As I have found, if you can change the situation or behavior that precedes old habits, new ones can more easily be formed.