I will admit that for the 4th-5th week of my new behavior, it was difficult. I was on winter break for 2 weeks and it was cold outside. There was nothing more relaxing than to take a warm shower. However, during those weeks, I managed to continue my habit because I knew that it would benefit me in the long run. As painfully tempting as it was, I did not take showers longer than 10-minutes. I did this by playing music while I showered and new that after 2 songs had played, I would need to get out because all of my songs are relatively 3-4 minutes long. This helped as a timer for how long I could be in the shower.
No one wants to create a new behavior unless it benefits them in some way. As sad as that sounds, it is actually true and you can read more about this Here (1). Think about it, for example for weight loss, you can not just say I want to lose weight and then do a few cardio exercises here and there. You have to be motivated to do it in the scenario where you want to lose weight so that you are able to do a pull-up. The point is that starting a new behavior is only possible when you have a set motivational goal in mind that benefits your everyday life.
If I was to create ad campaigns for taking shorter showers, I would use the tactic of showing the causes to our environment by taking longer showers. People are less likely to do something if they feel bad for doing it. So by warning people that we may not have enough water in 50 years, people will be more likely to change their habits. But for the people who do not care, an interest group could be created to influence the government to tax freshwater use.
I will continue this habit because when I get to the point where I am living on my own, I will have to pay the water bill. I am not going to want to take long showers because I will end up paying $100's of dollars. This has been helpful as it has motivated me to improve my habits as I look on my future. People care about how they will be in the future so this idea could help me influence people to take shorter showers. I wouldn't change anything because so far everything is working well. While I do care about my future and the sustainability of the future environment, I haven't done my behavior with the motivation to help the environment. There are some people who will do habits that will be better for the environment. However, for the rest of the people in the world, they have to be motivated for something in their own life which will help the environment on the side. People are weird like that but methods just need to be taken to work around natural human behaviors.
