The 6 Stages of Successfully Making a Change in Your Life – Life Transition Counselling in Vancouver

Whether you’re trying to stop smoking, lose weight or establish a new habit, making a change can be difficult. Anyone who has gone through the cycle of making a New Year’s resolution and breaking it is well aware of the discipline involved in making habits and life changes. Creating new behaviours is rarely an easy process and requires substantial amounts of effort, time and commitment. With so many distractions and the temptation of old ways, making lasting change isn’t easy. As they say, old habits die hard.

When it comes to getting started, there is no one formula or solution that applies to everyone. While the stages of change that people go through are the same, the process of getting to your end goal varies greatly. It all has to do with trial and error.

Let’s take a look at the 6 stages of change so you can better understand what it takes to form a new habit or accomplish a goal.

Stage 1: Pre-contemplation

The pre-contemplation stage is the first stage, in which you might be thinking about making a change. During this stage, you are often in denial and lack the knowledge or awareness that there are problems with your current behaviour.

Tactics:

• Assess the risks of your current behaviour
• Weigh the benefits of the contemplated change
• Analyze your behaviour objectively

Stage 2: Contemplation

During the contemplation stage, your awareness of the benefits that this change could bring deepens. You might weigh the pros and cons, and think twice if the downsides outweigh the positives. You’ll most likely start to second-guess yourself because of the challenge that lies ahead.

Tactics:

• Assess potential barriers or temptations
• Confirm your willingness and preparedness to change
• Make a pros and cons list

Stage 3: Preparation

When you prepare yourself, you might start taking baby steps towards your desired change. If stopping smoking is your goal, you might cut down the number of cigarettes you allow yourself in a day, before you take more drastic action.

Tactics:

• Start with small changes/baby steps
• Make a plan
• Prepare some initiatives and rewards for motivation

Stage 4: Action

This brings us to the fourth stage in which you’re taking direct action towards your end goal and fully believe that this new change will lead to a healthier life. It’s important that before you get to this stage, you prepare well, as jumping headfirst into any new venture could lead to the abandonment of your goal.

Tactics:

• Utilize a strong support network of family and friends
• Reward yourself for your successes, no matter how small

Stage 5: Maintenance

When you reach the maintenance change, you’ve most likely sustained the change for 6 months or more, and plan to maintain it going forward. Here, you should look for ways to avoid a relapse into earlier stages. It’s important to reward yourself, and not be too hard on yourself if you do give in to temptation.

Tactics:

• Develop an action plan to avoid the temptation
• Keep rewarding your successes
• Motivate yourself with positive, reaffirming statements

Stage 6: Relapse

Whether your goal was a big one or a small one, any new behaviour stage is prone to relapse. If you do go through this, you might feel disappointed and frustrated with yourself. The important thing here is to not let these setbacks undermine the substantial amount of effort you put into this change and all that you achieved. Working with a professional for life transition counselling in Vancouver can help you overcome these hurdles during the potential relapse stage.

Tactics:

• Assess the personal triggers that caused you to relapse
• Reconfirm your commitment to achieving this change and starting all over
• Accept the relapse and let go of feelings of failure
• Develop a strong plan of action to tackle barriers

Take time to reassess your methods of achieving your goal, your resources and your plan of action. Try to find the motivation to start up again, because at this point you won’t be starting from zero. If you’re sure that there will be future temptations, plan ahead for how you will tackle and overcome them.

In any implementation of new behavioural changes, many psychologists and therapists use this approach in helping individuals reach their goals. These 6 stages are used everywhere, from healing from addiction to quitting smoking.

If you’re venturing off on your very own road to change but aren’t quite sure how to get there successfully, doing so with the help of a counsellor can make a world of a difference. With my vast experience in helping people grieve, heal and overcome life transitions, I can help guide you on your own journey. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me for life transition counselling in Vancouver.

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash