How can I be ready, willing, and able to change my lifestyle?

To succeed at making lifestyle changes you need to answer YES to the question, "Are you ready, willing, and able to change?" The experts say that for people to change, making the change must be important to them. In other words, you must have good reasons to change. For example, maybe you want to live long enough to see your grandchildren grow up. You must have more reasons to change than reasons not to change. The experts also say that you must be confident - believe that you can change.

Look at the pros and cons. Ask yourself three questions:

Why do I want to try and change my lifestyle?  (the pros)
Why shouldn’t I try to change my lifestyle? (the cons)
What would it take for me to change my lifestyle? (how could you overcome the cons?)

The pros have to outweigh the cons for someone to change behaviors successfully.  If the cons are higher, you might not be ready to change - yet.  Some things you can do to help the processes of change are:

Get information: find out the benefits of changing your lifestyle.

Consider how your lifestyle affects others: for example, what are your children learning from watching your current lifestyle?

Connect with others: talk with others who are all working on the same lifestyle change.

Examine the barriers to your lifestyle change: some may be real, some may just be excuses (not really standing in your way), and some might be overcome with a strong enough motivation.

And is that motivation coming from inside, or from outside?  If you are making a lifestyle change for someone else - say your spouse or your employer - it probably is not going to be successful.  But if you can honestly say you’re changing for yourself and no one else, and take control and responsibility for your own health and well-being, your chances of success go way up.

You change when you perceive a problem or need for change.  Initially you may focus on the difficulty of change and the reasons for not changing. These may outweigh the reasons for change. When you start to feel the negative impact on you or others around you realize change is inevitable. 

Behavior modification starts with the awareness of a behavior that is either negative or is something that needs improvement. The awareness can come from within or it can come from another person. With awareness the choice can be made to keep the behavior as is or make a change. That change is behavior modification. Change generally happens slowly and it's important to be realistic about the change process. It may start through education, talking to family and friends, visiting a gym or by trying something that is not too taxing or exhausting; for example walking.

The most important step is the one you have already taken. You have acknowledged that you have a problem and have begun to think seriously about solving it. You are ready to engage in changing your lifestyle but the enormity of the challenge is probably a serious barrier to taking the next step and starting to actively change. It is natural to ask yourself whether this change is worth it and whether you are going to be successful. So, the first thing I want you to do it take a step back, breathe and relax. It is really important that you understand that changing your lifestyle is a process and that it will take time.  

 

Now that you are calmer and more relaxed, let’s commit to learning more about your problem and begin to put together an action plan that will be outline your steps to success. It is also very important that you make your lifestyle change manageable by “chunking” up the process. Specifically, break your goals into manageable pieces that you have confidence you can achieve. The more you do this the stronger will be your self-confidence in your ability to change your lifestyle which will motivate you to keep striving to achieve your goals.