Remember when I started Wellness Wednesday? With the new year approaching one of my goals is to be more consistent with that. Since we all like to set goals for the new year I thought this guest post from a great friend of mine Keana would be perfect. Please enjoy!
Hey! I’m Keana Nwaneri and I’m the creator and editor of Starting the Conversation Blog. I’m a graduate, Clinical Mental Health Counseling student with a passion for mental health and total wellness. I’m originally from St. Louis, MO but currently reside in Nashville, TN
Sacrificing Comfort For Change
In the counseling world, we use the transtheoretical model or Stages of
Change model to assess how “ready” and/or committed a client is, to changing a
particular behavior.
With New Year’s right around the corner and everyone on social media
sharing what they want to change this year, I thought I’d share a few tips on
creating long-lasting change.
One of my favorite people once told me “it’s not about how much you
want to loose weight, it’s about how willing you are to give up eating
cheeseburgers.” I laughed because for some reason, that was hilarious to me but
afterwards, I thought long and hard about that statement. It really resonated
with me. Although he wasn’t talking about me when he made that statement, in a
lot of ways, I was able to apply that to my own life and the things that I
wanted to change but just couldn’t find the motivation to.
The first stage of change is the precontemplation stage. In
this stage, you may not even realize that there is a problem, or you may simply
not be ready or willing to fix it.
The next stage of change is the contemplation stage. At
this stage, you’ve admitted that there is a problem and are considering initiating
change.
Next is the preparation stage. Here, you’re deciding that
you want to change and preparing for action.
The next stage is the action stage. Here you are
actively engaged in the process and taking the steps necessary to initiate
behavior change.
Lastly, there is the maintenance stage. Here,
you work to maintain the change(s) you have made.
While the stages are pretty straight forward, an important note to
remember is that each person works through these stages at their own pace and
unfortunately, it’s not always in this exact order. Change can be difficult,
scary or just plain old uncomfortable but know that that’s to be expected.
Don't let these feeling deter you from your ultimate goal or behavior change.
If you find that your New Year’s Resolutions aren’t happening as fast
as you would like, just take a step back, breath and be patient with yourself.
However, if you find that you are making little to no progress after long
periods of time, you may want to reassess your goal(s). Ask yourself:
1) Why is this goal
/ behavior change (BC) important to me? What does it represent, if anything?2) How will this goal / BC improve your life?
3) Is this the only way I can go about achieving my goal / BC?
4) What will it take for me to achieve this goal /BC?
5) How willing am I to commit myself to doing what it will take to achieve this goal / BC?
After answering these questions, you should have a better idea of what
it really is that you are wanting and how serious you are about doing, or not
doing, what is necessary to make it happen. Because while having goals and
wanting to change a behavior may sound like a great idea, you have to do the
work for them to materialize, and unfortunately, there is no shortcut to
success.
Ok guys if you would like to connect more with Keana you can read her BLOG and follow her other social media accounts below.
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