Making Change Stick

When many of us have a desire to make change, it’s easy to go straight to the Nike mentality of “Just Do It”; however, when we look at models for successful and lasting change, there are many other components.  Behavioral steps are just one building block of fifteen, for example, in the model for Mount Lasting Change. 

As you think back to your efforts for making behavioral changes and it seems that you always fall short, or the change is short-lived, I would encourage you to take a look at some of the other building blocks for making successful change.  Looking at it 360 degrees can really help identify some areas for improvement, which is much more beneficial in the long run than the guilt and self-loathing we run ourselves through.  Here are a couple of those blocks to start with:

1. Responsibility & Self-discovery – You have to be ready, willing and able to make change.  Spend some time thinking about your level of motivation, your feelings about getting started and your confidence that you will succeed.  What can you do to help bolster your readiness, willingness and ability to make the change you are seeking?


2. Strengths – What are you really good at?  What about you has made you successful in other areas of your life?  How can you use these skills/talents to increase your ability to make the change you want?


3. Values & Meaning – What do you value most as you envision your life having made this change?  What are some ways you can kindle that motivation to help you in times where your mind/emotions begin to pull you off course?


4. Benefits & Information – What are the pros of making this change last?  What information would be helpful?


5. Challenges & Strategies – What are the cons of the change?  Whether these things are actual negatives, or they just seem negative for our selfish, defiant nature, they are still real feelings we experience due to the change.  If you can really decipher how you truly feel about making a change, it will lead you to coming up with realistic strategies for dealing with those challenges

Take your time with these steps.  Don’t rush through and move straight into action as we do over and over and over again.  What is going to be different this time?  It’s not the behavior goal that really changes… it’s the support you build around making that behavior more meaningful, more do-able and with more confidence. 

What have you discovered about yourself today?