Changing your behavior

We've all done it. We decide to make a change. We're serious about this change. We know it's a change for the better. We commit to it...and then we slide back.

Oops.

Being committed to the idea of something new isn't enough. Often that change requires us to change our behavior, to develop a new habit.

I received a review copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Discovering Your Perfect Career a couple weeks ago. So far I haven't had time to do more than thumb through it, but I ran across this interesting set of statistics on behavioral change from a 1993 study at Brigham Young University.

It shows the chances of a change being incorporated into one's life in various scenarios.

When a person...

Says, "That's a good idea." 10%
Commits, "I'll do it." 25%
Says when they'll do it. 40%
Plans how to do it. 50%
Commits to someone else. 60%
Sets a specific future time to share progress with person they committed to. 95%

That, by the way, is an excellent example of why it can be so effective to work with a coach (someone like me, for example).

So when you really want to change, don't just hunker down, grit your teeth, and say, "I'm going to do things differently." The odds are against you. Reach out and find a way to bring others into your process.

--

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst (sm)

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Comments

[Hiren Shah]

Since old behavior becomes a habit it is true that to change that you have to form new habits and commit to them and old patterns are not easy to break:-
Men do more things through habit than through reason.
Habit makes or mar one’s fortune.
Habit is second nature.
Man is a slave of habits.
A habit cannot be forced out of the window, it can be coaxed out one step at a time.
Habit knows no cure.
Custom in infancy becomes nature in old age.

[Jeff Harbert]

Good stuff, Curt. Thanks.