Defence

Work—Life

Keeping promises, stages of change

By Katharina Chase

It’s that time again; you may have made some resolutions for the new year – lose weight, get fit, buy a house, get a new job – and whatever the decision, you are probably reaching the stage where you slack off. Either you forget you made the resolutions, or you convince yourself that you don’t really need to stick to them. But at the end of the year, you know you’ll regret not having followed through with those promises to yourself.

So what is it that will help you stick to your plans? It’s all about psychology…

When you’re sitting there on New Year’s Day (sipping your last cup of coffee before you give up caffeine for the New Year), rested, refreshed and partied-out, the idea of sticking to resolutions sounds totally feasible. In fact it sounds easy. You just don’t eat chocolate any more; you just get up an hour earlier to go for a walk; you just submit your resume to recruitment companies and have confidence in yourself; no problem! But when it comes down to it, actually sticking to those resolutions, seeing them through to the outcomes, is never as easy as it seems.

From a psychological perspective, it’s about managing change through recognising the ‘stages of change’ that one goes through, and a way to work through each stage.

The different elements of change are:

• Pre-contemplation – characterised by denial and ignorance, not thinking about making a change; overcome by re-thinking behaviour, analysing yourself and understanding why current behaviour is no longer acceptable.
• Contemplation – characterised by ambivalence and conflicted emotions, uncertainty for extended periods; overcome by changing thought process from ‘giving something up’ to ‘gaining something better’, identifying barriers to making changes, looking at pros and cons of the change, and being clear about why you want to change.
• Preparation – characterised by making small changes and understanding exactly what it is you’re going to undertake; overcome by writing down specific goals, making an action plan, perhaps even listing some affirmations or motivating statements.
• Action – this is the stage where you actually begin taking direct action to make the change; overcome by having completed all the previous steps properly, rewarding yourself when you take a positive step, and reviewing the lists and plans you made earlier to refresh your commitment.
• Maintenance – at this point you will focus on avoiding former behaviours and maintaining new ones, and you begin to see just what it feels like to have successfully and permanently made a change. Overcome this stage by replacing old habits with positive actions. If you do go back to an old habit, don’t assume all hope is lost, see it simply as a slip up and get back on track.
• Relapse – if you relapse and go back to old habits, you might feel disappointed and frustrated, as though you’ve failed. Notice why you fell back into the old habit and what triggered it. Overcome future occurrences by removing or avoiding the triggers to bad behaviour. If the relapse is significant, you may have to go back to the early stages of change to reaffirm your commitment and strengthen your motivation.

Understanding these six stages of change and how you might guide yourself through them can be a positive step to changing behaviours and sticking to a resolution. The satisfaction at having achieved a goal can sometimes be a reward in itself.

Information sourced from http://psychology.about.com/od/behaviouralpsychology/ss/behaviourchange.htm.

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