A friend sent me recent article from the Washington Post on change, based on a journal paper from the American Academy of Family Physicians. The "Stages of Change" model describes five stages that people go through before making a successful change in behavior:
- Precontemplation–no desire to change
- Contemplation–ambivalent about change
- Preparation–experiment with small changes
- Action–purposeful action towards change
- Maintenance and Relapse Prevention–incorporating the new behavior into daily life, with some recycling through the previous stages, before change is permanent
I won’t go into the details of each stage here.
What I am noticing is that change is hard. I’ve stayed in the Contemplation stage for years before moving to the Preparation and Action stage (e.g., getting into a fitness routine).
I’m also struck by how I see people in these different stages as a coach. People will contact me with an interest coaching to help them make a change in their life. It may be another year (or more) before they actually move into action. My own intuition that people will know when they are ready is a good one. There is no rushing change, is there?