Breaking Down The Stages Of Change
Are you ready for change? The following are the stages that people go through on the journey of change. The first one is pre-contemplation. The second is contemplation, then comes preparation, action, maintenance and sometimes relapse. It’s important to understand when approaching an intervention or change that one size does not fit all. You go through different stages and being aware of the stages of change model by researchers and appreciating that there is a specific transition at every point makes the journey more manageable. It’s important to recognize that your aspirations are worthwhile and meaningful. You also need to practice patience.
It’s necessary to recognize that it often takes a while to let go of old behavior patterns. It often takes 21 to 30 days before new habits are second nature to you. You should continue to resist the temptation of stopping your new habits and to stay on track. You should look at your positive gains and give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished as you go through the roller coaster of change. This is a normal part of making changes in your behavior in that you occasionally maintain one stage only to fall back and regress to a previous stage.
The first stage is the pre-contemplation stage. There is no consideration of change. The person is often in denial. They will say, “It doesn’t apply to me.” There is a feeling of immunity that bad things happen to other people. There are consequences and they will be very serious. There is maybe a history of having given up before, of having tried something and being unsuccessful in the past. There’s a belief that there is no capacity to control your behavior. They also may have challenges about even thinking about change.
In the contemplation stage, they’re undecided about change. They view the change as a loss in spite of possible gain. They recognize the need for change but maybe evaluating the barrier. They may need change, but they say they will think of the time, the expense and the hassle. They may spend time considering options. They may have to recognize barriers to change and the benefits of making a change. Getting through the contemplation stage may take anything from a few weeks to a lifetime. In the preparation stage, there is a commitment to change. People prepare or make small experiments to test what it’s like. They may do sampling changes, dive through recommendations, exercise or decreasing bad habits.
Then comes the action stage. They take definite action to change. This is often the shortest of all stages. It can take anything from an hour to six months. Next is maintenance, maintaining the behavioral change long-term. They may need to constantly reformulate the rules of their life and acquire new skills in order to avoid a relapse. The relapse occurs to those who fail to adequately prepare. They aren’t prepared for the trials and tribulations of change. The hastier the decision, the higher the chances of a relapse. They may need support with maintaining the change. They may need encouragement through admiration and praise.
There are a few stages of learning. The first stage is that of unconscious incompetence. They don’t know what they don’t know and they don’t care to know. There may be a belief that the subject matter is too trivial and not important enough to warrant time and energy. It’s so easy. Any idiot can do it. Then comes the state of conscious incompetence. Increasing awareness of ignorance, increasing awareness of the potential benefits of wanting to know more about the subject matter and learn some of the skills involved. This is an essential stage necessary to trigger the next stage of learning. How does anyone ever learn this?
Conscious competence, conscious awareness of theory, framework, skill sets and the ability to use the appropriate skills. All of the above in problem-solving, this is the beginning of expertise. I can do this. Unconscious competence, this is the stage where observation, theory, analysis, perspective and discovering a solution are so seamless and automatic that it shapes the flow and meld together. The answer seems so obvious that it seems hard to believe that no one else can see it. It seems so obvious. How come no one else sees this? This is a domain of an expert on the level of a habit.
Next is reflective competence. In order to reach the stage of reflective competence, the master requires a beginner’s mind, which refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject. Even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities but in the experts, there are only a few. When deliberately assuming the attitude of a beginner’s mind, the master or reflect on the field of study, and intend to break every concept down to its simplest form. Attempting to do this will be counterproductive at earlier stages. It will interfere with the process of developing superior automated skill sets.
Only when the superior skill sets are automated will the inquiry for first principles be useful. Only when you instruct enough will you build up a sample base sufficient to identify patterns of development and progress. Only when you can accurately assess an individual’s progress and specific skill attainments can you help them achieve the next level of development and growth. In this schema, you have reached the grand master’s stage when you can do the following. As soon as you meet someone for the first time, you are able to identify the current stage of development. You also know what it would take for them to move to the next level of attainment.
I’ve reviewed my personal diaries. Let’s start that when I was about fourteen years old. I reviewed my life from ages four to about the early 50s. I’ve had the opportunity to measure how when new automated programs or habits are in place that were built over 21 days, only then could I truly exercise choice. My time with my wife and my time for my own health and fitness were crucial for building my emotional, physical and mental things. When things got out of balance, it impacted everything else. We all want to do well in our work life, I get it but you can’t compromise your commitment to self-care or the relationships that matter most. The tradeoff is never worth it. When we try doing one at the expense of the other, we eventually fail at both.
Every new project I initiated was conceptualized ten to twenty years ago. There was nothing inherently new and simply because I noted this. I’ve observed this is true for all my clients as well, even though they may not be aware of it. This means that you want to keep considering the questions that I’m asking you now for the rest of the other podcasts that you’re listening to. What areas of your life do you want to simplify and make new choices? What do you have to give up to become more efficient? What are you prepared to omit to build relevant automated programs or habits? Not every automated habit or program must be chunked down for fifteen minutes or less. A detailed program on how to do this is on my online Freedom Formula – Mastering Time, Energy and Leverage in Nine Steps. What do you have to cut out to have sufficient resources to design what you want? How will you execute it so when you get clear like this, it can be incredibly empowering and the clarity will build momentum? Momentum encourages confidence and clarity and the confidence aligns your subconscious mind to start working for you, rather than against you.
The new big thing in your world is you must protect your confidence. You’ve got to equip yourself with every possible advantage. This exercise will jumpstart the process for you. Ask yourself as you move forward, “How will I maintain momentum throughout the entire year? How would I build on the foundation that I’ve started here?” We’ve all been excited for short bursts of time. We have come this far and I know you’re not someone who’s interested in a short burst of success. We are playing the long game. We want the life that continues to get better and better every week, every month, and every year. We want to look back twelve months from now with a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that we’ve just had the best day of our lives. That means we’ve got to put things in place that builds on the momentum of now. We’ve got to break out all habits and safeguard our success. Does that make sense?
One lucky audience that posts a review on iTunes will win a private confidential consultation and coaching with me on discovering your soul’s purpose. I will lead you on a personal journey to discover your unique mind, body, psychosomatic map of your life. You will get a detailed report and the personal 45-minute consultation with me that is worth thousands. On this blog, I’m going to help you design a life that works so you’ll able to say yes to the things that matter and eliminate everything else that slows you down.
The clearer you can be about how to organize your daily life to support your bigger vision, the more you step into your true potential, stay on track and accomplish all that you want to deserve. Are you ready to make that happen? Feel free to reach out to me and ask the questions at AskDrSun.com. Your life is a gift, design it. Do what matters and join me as we get closer to designing the life of your dreams.
