What You Need to Change Your Behavior to Change Your Life
There are thousands of pages of research on behavior change. It’s one of the most researched areas in the field of psychology. Obviously, there is a good reason for this. You’re not a finished product. There is a huge gap between what you are now and what you can become.
To change your behavior in a way that will change your life, experts say it takes anywhere from 4 to 10 stages. Moreover, advancing from one stage to the next is not a foregone conclusion. Just because you say you want to change your life doesn’t mean you will make it through the 4 to 10 stages you need to change your behavior.
Changing your behavior is a difficult process. Therefore, you must be smart about it if you want to get to the finish line. So, I suggest you start by taking the advice of renowned sport psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais:
The reason people change is because of pain.
With this in mind, before you embark on a behavior change to change your life, you must be clear about what the pain is you are trying to relieve by making this change. If that pain is not that bad or you’re willing to continue to endure that pain, it’s very unlikely that you will make it through the 4 to 10 stages you need to change your behavior.
To spark a change, you must be crystal clear about the pain you need to relieve. Furthermore, that pain must be intolerable. Once you identify a pain like this, you have what you need to change your life.