Are You Ready for a Change?
By Dr. Kevin Polk PHD in Clinical Psychology
Copyright 2000. All rights reserved.
"Change" is a word we use a lot. We use it a lot because we
do a lot of it. We even have a great saying for it, "The
only thing that doesn't change is that things change." We
are constantly bombarded with messages that we need to
change. We are told to change how much we weigh, how much we
eat, what we eat, how we interact with others, how we work,
etc. You need only to pick up a magazine, look at TV or
listen to the radio to be bombarded with messages about what
you need to change.
The problem is that change is stressful. Being told to
change is stressful as well. There is a good reason we get
stressed when we are told to change. Where I am from we call
it "being set in your ways." It's only natural. Being set in
your ways is a lot like autopilot. That means you don't have
to think much about what you're doing. If you had to think
about every little thing you did each day, you would be
exhausted in no time. So we tend to keep things the same to
save energy. This tendency is useful until we really need to
change.
A scientist named Dr. James O. Prochaska and his colleagues
have studied the stages people go through as they change.
They have found that there are five stages of change.
Knowing what stage you are in can help you get out of a rut
and make the changes you need to make. In my opinion it can
also help you decide to pass up the changes you don't need
to make. Think about it. If you made all the changes you are
told to make each day, you would do nothing but change.
Here are the stages of change:
1. Pre-contemplation:
This can mean that you are not
thinking about that change you need to make. It can also
mean you are thinking about changing, but not for six months
or more. For example, you did not know you needed to lower
your cholesterol level until you found it was too high.
Maybe you are thinking about getting to work on lowering
it...six months from now.
2. Contemplation:
Now you are thinking about making the
change within six months. For example, you know you need to
lower that cholesterol. You're thinking about doing
something about it soon, but that's all you're doing.
3. Preparation:
Now you've thought about it and know you
want to change. Now you are putting the pieces together to
make the change within the next 30 days. You're close to
action.
4. Action:
Now you go on that diet, you start exercising,
you take your medicine, whatever. You are spending time each
day doing the change. You have been doing so for six months
or less.
5. Maintenance:
You have made the change and kept it up for
more than six months. In terms of cholesterol, you lowered
the cholesterol and have kept it low for more than six
months.
Use these stages to help observe and analyze your self as
you change, or if you are like a lot of us, as you don't
change. So are there changes that you need to make but you
are keeping them in pre-contemplation? Are you just thinking
about doing something and not preparing? Maybe you keep
preparing and don't take action. Maybe you take action and
don't keep it up.
Whatever you do don't lose sleep over what stages of change
you are in. Treat this as another tool you can use to help
yourself feel better. You will probably want to use it when
you are feeling stuck solving a problem. Then you can
determine at which stage you're stuck. Maybe it will make it
easier to get going. Maybe you will decide to stay where
your are. There's some comfort in knowing where you are.
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mailto:timedoctor2@GetResponse.com?subject=REF025.
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