Part 6 - Self Control and Confidence

BEHAVIOUR CHAINS: THE FOUR LINKS IN THE CHAIN

What are the right things, inside you and outside you that you need to keep track of in your Daily Event Diary? Even after you’ve identified your most problematic behavior chain, it may seem to you that there are thousands of related occurrences to choose from each day. How do you know precisely what to record? To solve this problem, break your life’s steady stream of events into four easily recognizable and usable categories. These categories are as follows:

1. Outside events
2. Thoughts
3. Feelings
4. Behaviors

1. Outside events are things that happen to you or around you. They are cues that tell you to respond in some way. Psychologists think of them as stimuli. They set in motion the behavior chain that will end your doing something. For example, maybe your coach tells you that you’re starting the next game. Or maybe it starts to rain. Or maybe it stops raining. Or maybe your coach tells you that you’re not starting the next game. In this category, something happens and you begin to react.

2. You know what thoughts are, right? Well, for our purposes, thoughts are things you think, not images you see or emotions you feel. Thoughts are almost always in words, words say to yourself in your mind; speaking them would make them a behavior.

Thoughts include ideas, attitudes, interpretations, and plans. Psychologists often call thoughts cognitions. For example, an outside event occurs: your coach tells you that you’re starting the next game. You think, “Wow, that’s great!” Or maybe you think, ”Me? In the big game? Am I ready? Or maybe you think, “the big game! Everyone is going to be there and will see me.”

3. Feelings are emotions, sometimes moods. They’re not the thoughts you think of or the things you do. They’re emotions like joy, anger, fear, worry surprise. Some psychologists say that there are only seven basic human emotions, but we recognize combinations of the basic seven. Returning to our example, your coach tells you that you’re starting the next game. You think of one of the thoughts notes in the preceding paragraph, or any other thought you’d like to insert here. Then you feel scared, eager, or some mixture of emotions. Your thoughts may be racing as well, such as strategizing about how you’ll play or whom you’ll tell, but your feelings can be recognized as separate from such cognitions.

4. Finally, you perform a behavior. You do something. Maybe you call a friend. Maybe you start to sweat. Whatever you might do, your behavior is an observable event that can be seen, heard or felt, distinct from the inner world of thoughts and feelings.

In each behavior chain, these categories of events occur in the order just described. That’s why they are numbered here.