Are you ready to change?

It’s December 31st, 2017 and you just had your 8th glass of champagne with your friends celebrating the new year. Everyone around you is talking about their New Years resolutions and you get to thinking…..

“I am going to start hitting the gym hard and stop eating like an asshole all the time!”

Your buddy interrupts your day dream of sitting with a ripped 6 pack on the beaches of Mexico when he asks you, “Hey Travis, what’s your resolution?”  Everyone is now waiting for you to proclaim your “New year, new you” commitment.  You proudly exclaim, “I am going to get in the best shape of my life!”  Suddenly you hear your wife laughing uncontrollably and some how manages to gather herself and say, ” You have said that since 2006!”

What a gut punch!

This plays out for millions of people across the world every year I am certain of it.  This is year is the holy grail of starting over: 1/1/2018 is a MONDAY! Everyone starts their life changing behaviors on a Monday!

What prevents people from reaching their goals?  It’s a lot more than not having a clue about what to do when they go to the gym or to eat when they are starving at the end of a long day of work.

When we are making changes in any part of our lives, we go through six phases of change…..  Let’s look at Travis as our example and in following posts we will come back to Travis as he takes on his adventure of change in subsequent blog posts:

1. Pre-contemplation- No intent of changing behavior because you are not aware that there’s a problem.

 Travis is way past this stage as he decided that he is starting tomorrow.

2. Contemplation- Aware there is a problem but is not committed to make a change.

 Travis is starting tomorrow because he knows he hasn’t worked out since Memorial Day and has eaten more food truck lunches in the last week than most do in a year.

3. Preparation- Intent on taking action to address the problem!

Travis is ready to rock and is starting tomorrow, but he isn’t finished! 

Travis and his wife, Marie, share an awkward Uber ride home that night because she put him on blast in front of his friends. To break the awkward silence, Marie asks Travis,  “Why do you want to do it this year?”

Travis, dumbfounded, has no answer…….