Have you ever found yourself examining a situation in your life, and saying that you want to see it changed for the better? If you’ve been at that place, or ARE at that place in your life there is something VERY important you should consider. There are stages of change that drastically impact on your ability or readiness to actually realize the change you are longing for.
There are 6 stages of change and they are as follows:
- Pre-contemplation
- (Not yet acknowledging that there is a problem behavior that needs to be changed)
- Contemplation
- (Acknowledging that there is a problem but not yet ready or sure of wanting to make a change)
- Preparation/Determination
- (Getting ready to change)
- Action/Willpower
- (Changing behavior)
- Maintenance
- (Maintaining the behavior change) and
- Relapse
- (Returning to older behaviors and abandoning the new changes)
If you’ve heard yourself saying or thinking (‘I don’t like the way things are’, ‘things need to be different’, or ‘I want this situation to change’) then the next step is identifying what stage of change you are at.
Many of us want to see change happen right away and I don’t blame you, I usually want to see change ASAP in my life too once I’ve acknowledged I’m not happy with the way things are. Truth is though, that there is a ‘process’ to change, and if we aren’t aware of this we can easily become discouraged and give up on seeing change happen in our lives.
Think about some areas in your life where you want to see change and ask yourself what stage of the ‘change process’ you are in? Throughout this week I will be exploring each stage, so be sure to check back for more info.
Colleen