I definitely hear you on the issue of connecting from start to finish. I should have prefaced the video samples with the fact that we’ve only started the video production using our extensive library of footage. The videos in the ‘Getting Started Series’ eBook are certainly not intended to be the comprehensive unit to promote real behavior change. Rather, it’s more of an overview of the the primary topics that would constitute a series of videos. Each of the videos within the topic would be created & ordered along the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change. Does that makes sense?

Ultimately, we’ve just begun the video-creation process after almost a couple years of gathering video & textual interviews. The challenge is determining whether or not this type of video-messaging can actually prove effective towards behavior change, as well as identifying potential partners that supplement the videos with some form of counseling effort (virtual or in-person).

Feel free to shoot me an email and we can set up a day/time to chat further!

jseyfert@foreverathletes.com

-Jessica

I’m so honored to be asked my opinion. I love the concept and your approach. I think its important to realize that the video link I provided works because it motivates the person in that moment to dig into his pockets and give a blind man some change. I don’t think that video would make that person continue to go back and give the blind man their change forever.

I think these videos are great in initiating motivation to start your journey but you risk losing that enthusiasm pretty quickly with what is shown. These “forever athletes” talk about their long road and the baby steps they took to get to where they are, but then you show them doing some amazing things like pole vaulting & weight lifting. Often at the gym I see newly motivated people start running on the treadmill or take a fitness class that is above their ability level, they don’t come back after that day, instead they are walking backwards down the stairs at home due to the soreness they feel and swearing they won’t ever do that again.

The journey is in-between, where they started and becoming a “forever-athlete.” The connections needs to happen there or you lose the enthusiasm that motivated them to try in the first place.

The connection points from something like text or other communication channel tied into your efforts is extremely important because its the interaction with your message that changes the context and meaning of the message to that individual that make the change happen.

The Marshmallow Study demonstrates the importance of self-discipline in lifelong success. Offer a group of 4-year-olds one marshmallow, but tell them if they wait for your return after running an errand, they’ll get two. You disappear for 15-20 minutes. The theory was, children who could wait demonstrated their ability to delay gratification and control impulse, which later showed they were more successful and healthier in life.

How do you take the 4-year old one marshmallow eater and get them to override impulse for reward? The video is like the artist on the street. In 30 minutes s/he has created something before your eyes and you say, “how much for that?” and s/he replies, “$20,000.” “Are you crazy?,” you say, “it only took you 30 minutes to make that!” and they reply, “30 minutes, plus 20 years.”

In this example, connecting meaningful improvements to get to the final product took 20 years…what connections are you providing in that journey from start to end result.

In reference to your specific comment, Chris, “…its also really about connection with another person’s reality, their story, their senses. As humans we want to mitigate risk, we are motivated to overcome our innate sensibilities by connection with meaning.”, you’ve summed up our intentions with the videos we’re producing. Providing a context of the motivation for being physically fit, through the real-life stories of those we’ve interviewed, we hope to trigger that motivational piece for those who need it most…to trigger something beyond that which a medical clinic can provide…something that relates to soul of our humanity and quality of life.

Myself and team-members working on the videos, are very open to feedback regarding our intent. More specifically, what are the thoughts around inspirational video-messaging serving as the motivational piece to create behavior change in the obese/overweight population?? Could a physician-prescribed “treatment” involving a series of videos over time, be useful towards providing the context needed for patients to respond favorably?

Sample of the general video content we’ve begun producing: http://www.foreverathletes.com/wp-content/generic1/index.html

Sample story (eBook with videos): http://www.foreverathletes.com/wp-content/cheriestory/index.html

Thanks for your feedback.

-Jessica
jseyfert@foreverathletes.com

After the last 1.5 years of filming interviews with various adults who regularly participate in some type of sport or physical activity, very quickly, common themes rose to the top. We interpreted the themes as “lessons” that the general population could implement to become more healthy. And so, we started created videos to share the stories of the people we’ve interviewed, but in a way that hopefully “teaches” the lessons through actual application. Videos samples here: http://www.foreverathletes.com/wp-content/generic1/index.html

The thought is, if we can get the support of doctors to “prescribe” a series of videos to their patients, based on the patients’ needs, and have a means for following up with that patient, there may be a good chance of real behavior change. Using these videos as a primary “treatment”, we would hope to put the patient back at the center of the treatment and provide hope for real change, where change is needed.

Any thoughts on this??

We talked about our children and their schooling and that brought up the Industrial Revolution. Our school system came about during this time as folks left farms for factories and assembly lines. Assembly lines are efficient by compartmentalization.

A medical professional is educated in this fashion as well. Kids are competing to go to the best colleges to proudly become doctors. When they graduate, they will have spent more years in institutions that came about from the concepts of efficiency from the Industrial Revolution…to take in mass amounts of data by compartmentalizing it, than the patients they often see.

Psychologically, there’s also a benefit in leveraging it, particularly for med students in dealing with the pressure and anxiety of studies or dealing with too many patients and too little time. Navy Seals actually use compartmentalization as part of their technique in enabling more of their recruits to get through Hell Week…to master the mental challenges associated with the grueling physical tasks they have to endure by compartmentalizing. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/03/navy-seals-exhibit-ultimate-mental-toughness/

I hope most doctors and teachers go into their profession because they care about their students and patients, but despite their best intentions, they are limited by their context, what they have learned and where they have come from as well as the system they deal with.

My grandmother was a smoker and died of lung cancer. When she was 11, doctors told everyone that smoking was good for you so she lit up with everyone else.

My mother’s generation didn’t breastfeed their children because doctors told them that formula was better for their babies.

My son’s teacher said he had trouble with the writing assignment, “The Holiday Tradition we celebrated over Winter Break.” I asked what she did to help him, she replied, “I show him his vocabulary tests because he always gets 100%.”

There is the controversy over the goals and objectives in No Child Left Behind, that what is measured forces the teachers to teach to (pass) test rather than teaching to learn. But teaching to learn is the same to me as enabling you to engage in behavior change.

A young child doesn’t initially share, we are ruled by our instincts not to, but eventually a child learns that sharing gives greater rewards.

By the very fact that you are reading or responding to this blog, you are sharing and that is participatory medicine. http://youtu.be/NBmvBS9D6HU

Its folks like Dr. Kvedar who are thinking outside of the box and the momentum that we all create by sharing that is going to shift the paradigm that technology changes are creating.

A blog on the history of Doctors (they left out the Industrial Revolution) – http://blog.soliant.com/careers-in-healthcare/the-history-of-physicians-doctors/

I’m glad you quit, I know change is hard.