This is a timely tribute to him because I always wanted to share my personal experience about how one of his papers inspired my career and eventually led to the creation of this channel. Namely, I discuss the key ideas of Bandura’s 2005 paper titled: ‘The Primacy of Self-Regulation in Health Promotion’.

Are you familiar with professor Bandura’s works and theories? Would you like to know more about it? I would love to know what you think!

In this episode, I want to talk to you about one important thing that you should know about goal-setting. That is, that goal-setting is about practicing and mastering the process, no matter the outcome! While it might sound contradictory, the benefits of conscious goal-setting are more in the action itself of doing that and not in its consequences.

Sure, we all wish we could achieve every single goal we set for ourselves. This is, however, quite unrealistic, as we are all fallible human beings. Nevertheless, the rational act of setting a goal and the way to pursue it, is one of the greatest achievements we can have.

What are your experiences with goal-setting? Have you failed many personal goals? And how did that make you feel? I would love to read your opinion!

In this episode, I want to talk to you about what behavioral science defines as ‘stretch goals’. Even though goal-setting is widely used in and outside science, I suspect that stretch goals are a type of goals that aren’t usually integrated in the typical recommendations. For that reason, I think stretch goals are a good example that illustrates the hidden potential of goal-setting.

Stretch goals have inspired my life and are a fundamental part of my general goal-setting strategy. Have you ever heard of them? If not, listen to what I have to say and let me know what you think!

In this episode, I want to share with you one technique that has greatly helped me confront challenges, fears, and difficult situations in life. I refer to it simply as a ‘Conversation with myself’, because that’s what it is. It is something you can try out in a private space and in just a matter of minutes. It could help you have some meaningful reflection or simply order out your thoughts about a certain subject.

I have no specific source for this technique. I just started doing it one day and I liked it so much that I continued. Because it worked for me, maybe it works for you? Remember, that is what self-primacy is about: learning, practicing, mastering, and sharing techniques that can help us exert control over our own behavior. Have you ever heard about a similar technique? Or even better, have you ever tried it out yourself? Let me know!

In this episode, I want to share with you one specific visualization technique that I have practiced often in my life. I call it ‘Flashbacks’ and the name is almost self-explanatory. Basically, at moments where I am facing a challenge or a difficult situation, I try to boost my motivation or energize myself with positive energy by visually recalling in my mind all the key moments and hard work that got me up to that point. Thinking about these experiences help me continue my confrontation with today’s challenges.

Anyway, this technique is just something that I tried out for myself out of the blue, but it worked! Because it worked for me, maybe it works for you? Remember, that is what self-primacy is about: learning, practicing, mastering, and sharing techniques that can help us exert control over our own behavior. Have you ever used visualization in this way? If not, I recommend you to try it!

In this episode I tell you about ‘The Decalogue’ technique. It is a technique that can help you reflect about your life, behavior, and personal values. Moreover, it is really easy to perform! Simply think of ten principles, try to follow them in your life, and update the list every now and then!

I was inspired to pick up this technique many years ago when I attended a talk by sport journalist Roberto Gómez Junco, who spoke, among other things, about his own professional decalogue. Following this, I tried to apply this technique in my life, and it worked! That is for me what self-primacy is about: learning, practicing, mastering, and sharing techniques that can help us exert control over our own behavior. Do you have a decalogue? If not, try to make one and let me know what difference that makes, or not, in your daily life.

In this episode, I introduce to you five principles that I consider to be self-evident in self-improvement. By ‘self-evident’, I literally mean something that does not need proof or explanation. By sharing these, I hope to boost your own journey into self-improvement.

I have no specific source for these principles. They are simply things that I have gotten to experience up to the point of knowing they are just always there, when attempting self-improvement. Check out the video and let me know what you think! What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? More importantly, what are your own self-evident principles?

How to initiate behavior change? You might have this question if you have never taken a conscious, systematic approach to improve your life. Or perhaps you have already done that, but you might be looking to try a different approach towards self-improvement.

In this episode, I introduce to you three simple and straightforward techniques that can help you initiate behavior change. They are ‘Agenda Mapping’, ‘Brainstorm Options’, and ‘Consider Behavior Change Options’.

I got to know these techniques thanks to the compendium of self-enactable techniques published by Keegan Knittle and his colleagues in 2020. Check it out: https://osf.io/mwtrb/. If you want some more tips and examples of these techniques, follow me on my social media platforms! You will find there some short videos explaining each of these techniques separately.

How many times have you been disappointed because you failed in an attempt to change or improve your behavior? Do not give up! The key is to practice and master different techniques and strategies.

Interesting right? The compendium was put together by reviewing techniques that were part of several other taxonomies developed and used in behavioral science. Importantly, Keegan Knittle and his colleagues even included a general version of the compendium that is tailored to make its contents accessible to the general public.

If you ever need a quick and easy entry-guide to behavior change, the compendium is the perfect starting point. Check out our conversation and let me know what you think!

Here, I do not address the science behind self-talk. Instead I just provide a simple and effective self-talk technique that comes from a book that I read. The technique centers on how you can redefine your concept of luck so that it can motivate you.

The concept of luck that I talk about comes from Robin Sharma’s book titled ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’. Check it out!

The main topic of the book is “statisticism”, a term coined by the author to describe an ascendant and continuing, yet unfortunate, practice in mainstream psychology. In this final part, Professor Lamiell talks about the historical developments that led to the ascendance of statisticism in psychology.

He also guides us through his own path and decision-making as a scientist with historical, methodological, and philosophical questions, in a field of science that did not always embrace such approaches! At the end of the video, he offers key takeaways for psychologists and non-psychologists, based on his book.

So what can we learn from the historical developments of psychology that led to statisticism? And what are the main takeaways of Professor Lamiell’s book?

Behavioral scientists have their own opinions about negative self-talk. However, in this video I do not address the science behind it. Instead I present one of my favorite examples of negative self-talk. Namely, I discuss Mike Tyson’s technique to use negative self-talk as a motivator.

I use Mike’s example to focus on three questions: When can negative self-talk be useful? When is it better to avoid it? And how to master the negative to positive transition?

The main topic of the book is “statisticism”, a term coined by the author to describe an ascendant and continuing, yet unfortunate, practice in mainstream psychology. In this second part, Professor Lamiell talks about the incorrigibility of psychology. Moreover, he talks about the socio-ethical problems that statisticism imposes for psychological science.

So why has psychology been so resistant to change? And what are the consequences of continuing this path?

Naturally, behavioral science has a lot of accumulated knowledge on this topic. However, this knowledge is not always reachable or made available to the general public. That is what this episode is about!

I focus on three important questions: What is self-talk? Why is self-talk important to you? And how can you improve self-talk?

The main topic of the book is “statisticism”, a term coined by the author to describe an ascendant and continuing, yet unfortunate, practice in mainstream psychology. In this first part, Professor Lamiell introduces himself, the book, and statisticism!

The main topic of this book is “statisticism”, a term coined by the author to describe an ascendant and continuing, yet unfortunate, practice in mainstream psychology.

I think Professor Lamiell’s book is a weapon. A weapon of knowledge to defend our individuality. I explain why here!