The Sixth Pivot: From Avoidant Persistence to Committed Action
The final pivot from psychological rigidity to psychological flexibility is the pivot from avoidant persistence to committed action.
The yearning within this pivot is the inborn human desire for competence or mastery:
‘We yearn to be able to act effectively in the world; to live, and love, and play, and create skillfully. This is the yearning for competence—to be able.
We do not have to learn to want it; the desire is inborn. If you watch young children explore and play you see that they are willing to spend many hours learning to do very simple things like open a box or bounce a ball. No one has to tell them this needs to be done or provide much in the way of external rewards to get them going. They want to know how to do things. The reward is built into the action itself, and as children grow they will spend endless hours learning a new jump-rope trick or how to build a taller tower with wood blocks. Evolution built this yearning into us, and good thing too, given how much we have to learn.’ [1]
The challenge present within this yearning for competence is that we do not become instant masters at any new pursuit. We stumble. We fail. Our motivation wavers. It’s often two-steps-forward, one-step-backwards all along the way. Throughout we contend with our preference for instant gratification on the one hand and the constant reminds that come our way that tell us that we haven’t made the standard we long for. This often leads us into the traps of procrastination or futility on one hand or workaholism of perfectionism on the other. What the sixth pivot invites us into instead is the process of habit-building alongside a flexible appreciation of the intrinsic satisfaction of developing competence grounded in values-based actions. Hayes writes,
‘We are always building larger patterns of action, known as habits. When we think about building habits, we tend to focus on perfect outcomes, such as quitting smoking entirely hard-stop. In fact, habit building is a moment-by-moment process… The Action pivot focuses us instead on the process of competently and continuously building habits in small steps linked to the construction of larger habits of loving, caring, participating, creating, or any other chosen value.’[2]
For Hayes, committing to a new plan of action is carried forward effectively through the development of SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, results-focused, and timebound. These are the kinds of realistic, tangible, small behavioural direction changes that can make significant changes over the long haul.
The other flexibility skills also play a vital role in helping us to achieve these goals:
‘Defusion allows us to distance ourselves from negative thoughts and judgments about our progress. Connecting to our transcendent self keeps our focus on taking action because we care, not to comply with social expectations or avoid guilt. Acceptance helps us maintain our grit when the going gets tough. Presence helps us stay focused on the process rather than the end goal—and how far from it we are. Connecting with our values reminds us that these difficult actions are in the service of living the life we will find meaningful, rather than in service of proving our self-worth or escaping from difficult experiences.’[3]
If we can make these pivots we may find that rather than life contracting at various points we experience the joy of life expanding in wonderful and enjoyable ways.
[1] Steven Hayes, A Liberated Mind: The Essential Guide to ACT (2019), p.247-248
