Of the hundreds of self-change techniques that have been suggested over the centuries, perhaps only a dozen are totally different. Researchers have tried to see which ones work best.
Three techniques 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, career paths, coping strategies, and so on—often rely on one or more of the three techniques.
To get yourself started in a new direction, try the Three M’s:
Modify(改变)your environment
The power of modifying one’s space has been well displayed in studies since it was reported in the 1960s for the first time. Psychologist Richard Stuart 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.
People who have never tried this are astonished by the enormous effect it often has. 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. To change yourself, change your world.
Monitor your behavior
I’ve been reading research studies on self-monitoring for 20 years, and I’ve conducted some myself. The fact is, if you monitor what you do, you’ll probably do better.
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.
A study by Canadian researchers showed that teenagers arrived more promptly at a swim practice when they were given an attendance sheet to record their arrival times. Sonya Carr and Rebecca Punzo reported that self-monitoring improves academic performance of emotionally disturbed children in reading, mathematics and spelling. Dozens of studies have similar results, all inspired by heightening our awareness of our behavior.
Make commitments
When you commit yourself to another person, you establish a possibility of reinforcement
(后效强化)；you’ve automatically arranged for a reward if you stick to it and a punishment if you don’t. It puts some pressure on you, and that’s often just what you need.
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
(准时的). In 1994 Dana Putnam and other researchers showed that patients who made written commitments were far more likely to take prescribed medicine than patients who hadn’t
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 that anyone can master and that don’t require willpower-in other words, with skill, not will.
Change your bad habits to good

Paragraph outline	Supporting details
Introduction	·Most of self-change techniques that have been suggested before are_____ ·People who are____in making changes in their lives often rely on one or more of the Three M’s
Modify your____	·Those who have never tried this method can__enormously from it ·Several people have overcome nail-biting with a nail file always_____reach
____your behavior	·If you monitor what you do, you are very____to do better ·The more you become_____of what you’re doing, the better you will perform
Make commitments	·Committing yourself to someone else will pressure you to carry it out, which helps reward yourself ·The patients who made written commitments probably___medicine  as instructed by doctors
Conclusion	Anyone can satisfy most of his demands and overcome most of the challenges with simple skills____ than great willpower