As the New Year starts and people are focusing energy on making resolutions it seems to be an appropriate time to write an article regarding how to be most successful with making healthy changes. The process of how and why people change and what leads to lasting change has been a large emphasis of importance for the field of psychology. The specific area of motivation to change has been an area of particular interest and study for myself personally in the field of mental health.
First, regarding motivation to change there is strong research in the field that has clearly defined stages that people commonly go through in their change process. Prochaska and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model describes a natural process in which people cycle through stages of readiness and action in the process of changing their behavior. This cycle includes six stages: precontemplation (person is not considering change), contemplation (person is considering change, but has not acted to make a change), preparation (person is getting ready to change and is surer that a change is needed), action (person implements changes), and maintenance (person is able to sustain change). Relapse (stage 6) is also considered part of the process since most people re-cycle through the stages at least once on their way to stable change. Relapse is generally an event that terminates the action or maintenance stages and leads the person to cycle back into the precontemplation or contemplation stages.
It can be important to keep a high level of motivation in order to stay in the action stage for change. This can often be achieved by acknowledging both the pros and cons of a certain change since the pros of a change typically outweigh the cons. For example: for someone deciding to eat healthier and exercise more the cons of this plan could be things such as it can be more expensive to eat healthy, takes more planning, can cause physical soreness, it is hard to give up some favorite unhealthy foods, etc. This same person though when thinking of the pros or positives of healthier eating and exercise habits can focus on how he or she feels better when in better shape and eating healthy, the decreased risk for illness and chronic diseases, etc. Since these types of pros outweigh the cons that do exist the person can stay motivated and remain in the action phase of his or her change plan. This type of strategy involving reviewing both the pros and cons also has been found to significantly help people maintain changes.
In addition, when people have made it through a motivation to change cycle and are in the action stage there are many things that assist people in being successful. One key strategy is for people to set clear and realistic goals. Setting both short-term and long-term goals can help people stay on track when creating new behaviors. It also is critical for people to reward themselves with bonuses or incentives for reaching milestones along the way in achieving a goal. Setting small, achievable goals and rewarding and celebrating successes is one of the best ways to stay encouraged and motivated to continue reaching a goal and moving into making a new behavior into a healthy habit.
Having significant support systems can also be crucial in successfully reaching goals. In general, people who surround themselves with supportive others (often others with similar goals) are found to be successful. For example, research has been presented that people who attend support groups for weight loss typically are more successful than others who try to reach their weight loss goals without a supportive system.
Sometimes people will try to change too many things at once, which for many people becomes too overwhelming. This feeling of being overwhelmed often seems to lead to people becoming discouraged when they are not able to maintain all the changes they are trying at once.
The beginning of the New Year can offer a wonderful opportunity to reflect and reassess, creating the space to chart a course for change. Hopefully some of this information regarding how the motivation to change process works, as well as strategies for how to set and achieve goals regarding creating new healthy habits will be helpful as people work to make changes this year.
**Prochaska, J. O. (1999). How do people change, and how can we change to help many more people? In M. A. Hubble & B. L. Duncan (Eds.), The heart and soul of change: What works in therapy. (pp. 227-255). Washington, DC, USA: American Psychological Association.
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