By Jason Florin | For The Bugle
As the excitement of starting a new year begins to fade, often the well-intentioned pledges we made also lose steam. Maybe you promised to lose weight, to learn a new language, to quit smoking or to work out every day, and now you find yourself looking forward to 2017 as the year of change.
According to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, there are almost 50 percent more gym enrollments in January than during an average month throughout the year. This indicates that we start the year with the best intentions before drifting down a path toward old behavior.
Understanding how we change
In the 1980s, researchers at the University of Maryland developed a unique way of understanding how people make changes. They described a series of stages that everyone experiences before, during and after making a significant transition. This model, called the “stages of change,” is used by professionals in various healthcare settings, and it is useful to anyone considering a change. The approach involves five basic phases:
- – Pre-contemplation – A point where we don’t have any plans to change;
- – Contemplation – When we begin to consider changing and may even make plans to change sometime in the future;
- – Preparation – Where we make a decision to change and create a plan to make it happen;
- – Action – When we follow our plan and commit to the change; and
- – Maintenance – Where we have established the new behavior as part of our habits.
Let’s use an example of someone who has been a smoker for many years and made a New Year’s resolution to quit in 2016. This person may have grown tired of the expense of smoking, having to stand outside in the cold and might have experienced some health issues. So he decided to quit, which is great.
At this point, he was probably in the contemplation stage and may have even taken some actions Jan. 1, such as throwing out his pack and buying nicotine gum. After fighting through a week of cravings, he bought a pack and had a few cigarettes.
This pattern is extremely common when beginning the process of change. A lot of people think they have failed, although in reality, any change is difficult and should be commended. However, more work has to be done in the contemplation and preparation stages before the change will take hold.
If you can relate to the description above, then consider taking some time to evaluate your own process. Before trying a new action, did you have a concept of why you were making the change, which is a critical part of moving out of contemplation?
Also, did you put together a reasonable plan, the all-important preparation phase? If not, then now is a chance to correct those steps to help you move forward.
On the TV show “The Biggest Loser,” contestants compete to lose weight by making major lifestyle changes. One of the tools used on the show involves contestants writing down their No. 1 reason for wanting to change and then making T-shirts with that statement. The slogans reveal the hopes and desires each person carries.
Your own reason might be simple – to look good at the beach this summer or maybe to beat your dad in a 5k. As long as it pushes you to stick to your goal, then it’s the right purpose.
You can make your own shirt, or simply write the reason on a piece of paper, or maybe keep a picture with you that is a reminder of what you want.
Doing what works
If you had these motivational elements in place but did not stick with the change, that’s still excellent. Now you can decide what worked for you and what didn’t, as you attempted a new behavior. Most of us don’t get things right on the first try. We live by trial and error, and what is effective for others might not work for us.
Feel free to be creative and modify your plan as needed. Making a goal public is an effective tool for some people, while others do better quietly working toward a change. Whatever your goal is, use as many resources as you can find: read books and websites, listen to others stories, make mental notes of what is working, and be supportive of yourself as you do one of the most daunting things a person can do, which is to make a change.
One of the hardest things to overcome is our past mistakes. Motivational speaker Andy Stanley has commented that experience alone does not make us wiser. In fact, we commonly repeat past behaviors, even if they were unsuccessful.
Only by evaluating the experience and making necessary adjustments do we become wiser.
To sum up
If you have started to slip in your changes, take some time to work back through the process to prepare for actions that will last. Find what’s driving you and decide what methods will work best for you going forward.
And, keep focused on seeing yourself the way you want to be.
Next month, we examine the question of whether today’s teenagers use drugs more than their parents did a generation ago. I look forward to sharing my findings with you.
Jason Florin is an assistant professor and coordinator of Human Services at College of DuPage and has 15 years of experience working in mental health and substance-abuse treatment.