Will I Eat Vegetables?

I am currently reading The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett, which explores his 33 laws for business and life.

As I’ve been making my way through it, I’ve been doing what I always do with a book that makes me think: underlining interesting bits in yellow highlighter.

But when I reached the section about the Question-Behaviour Effect, I stopped highlighting and started writing.

The idea is wonderfully simple.

Instead of telling someone to do something, ask them a question.

So, rather than:

Please recycle.

Ask:

Will you recycle?

Research into the Question-Behaviour Effect suggests that asking the question can make someone more likely to actually do the thing.

And that got me thinking.

Could it work on me?

Because I am forever setting myself little intentions.

Eat more vegetables.

Book that dance class.

Make time to paint.

Go for that walk.

And I mean every single one of them when I say them.

Then life happens.

The dance class doesn't get booked. The vegetables remain hopefully sitting in the fridge. My paints stay exactly where I left them, and another week disappears.

So I've decided to try something different.

Instead of telling myself what I should do, I'm going to ask myself what I will do.

And my first question is:

Will I eat vegetables?

That's it.

For the next week, I'm not setting myself a target or creating an elaborate meal plan. I'm simply going to keep that question in my mind:

Will I eat vegetables?

Will asking myself the question make me more aware of the choices I'm making? Will I automatically add some vegetables to my lunch? Will I look at my dinner and think, Hang on, where are the vegetables?

Or will absolutely nothing happen?

Admittedly, this first week might not be the fairest experiment. Now that I've decided to test the theory, I'm obviously going to be thinking about it.

So I'm going to take it a little further.

Every week, I'm going to set myself a new question.

Not a resolution.

Not another item on my to-do list.

Just a question.

Will I book the dance class?

Will I make time to paint?

Will I spend more time outside?

Will I try something new?

And I'm going to see what happens.

Does changing the language change my behaviour?

Does a question make me more curious and less resistant?

And, most importantly, does it actually make me do the things I keep saying I want to do?

I have absolutely no idea.

But that's rather the point.

Will you join me?

I'd love to turn this into a little Tenacious experiment.

Choose one question to ask yourself this week. Keep it somewhere you will see it—or simply carry it around in your head—and notice what happens.

Then tell me.

What was your question?

And did you do it?

Send your question, your successes, your spectacular failures and anything you discovered along the way to welcome@tenaciouswellness.com.

I’ll report back next week on the important matter of whether I did, in fact, eat my vegetables.

And I'll have a new question waiting for me.

So, what will you ask yourself this week?