One of the reasons that behaviour change is so difficult to achieve is because we face many barriers or hurdles to altering our habits. These barriers can come in different shapes and sizes.

• Some barriers come in the form of limitations in our physical or mental capabilities. For example we may want to be more active and exercise more but an old back injury may prevent us from doing so.
• Behaviour change may also be hindered by things within the physical or social environment. These are known as opportunities. For instance, we may want to eat more fruit and veg but find that the unhealthy food options are always on special offer in the canteen.
• Finally, our internal or automatic responses can inhibit or promote behaviour. These barriers fall into the motivations category. For example we may want to monitor our weight but avoid using a weighing scales because of the negative emotions it elicits.

Start identifying barriers now

Identifying these barriers and exploring how to overcome them is therefore a critical step in applying behavioural insights to any problem.

This is why we at BIT have created a tool to help you identify the potential barriers to your desired behaviour. Using the COM-B model of behaviour change developed by Susan Michie and her team of behavioural experts at University College London, the BIT Barrier Identification Tool will help you discover and overcome some of the hurdles that might be hindering your desired behaviour. 

Simply click on the link below, input the specific behaviour you want to change and explore 20 common behavioural barriers to identify which one might be hindering your desired outcome.

Find out how it works in our demo