How hard is it to change?

Change is Hard

This is not a warm fuzzy blog telling you how easy it is to change, its a honest look at the challenges we face and how we can work to overcome them. It is important to look at the world empirically and without rose colored glasses.  We need to understand the reality that we face when we are trying to change or achieve a goal if we want to be succesful. Don’t worry though, it ends on a postivie note. 

So here we go…some change statistics:

  • On average, addicts need to go through treatment four times before they stay sober.
  • According to a study by the University of Scranton, only 9% of New Year’s resolutions are achieved, which means that 91% of people fail at achieving those resolutions. Most New Year’s resolutions don’t last more than two-weeks (i.e., January 15th).
  • In a large study with patients with a severe cardiovascular trauma, patients were informed by their doctors that they needed to alter their eating, exercise, stress and alcohol habits or face continuing issues or possibly even death. After 2 years, only 11% of patients fully complied with their doctor’s recommendations.
  • It is often reported that 95% of dieters regain the weight they lost over a five-year period. This comes from a 1959 study by Dr. Albert Stunkard and Mavis McLaren-Hume. More recent studies show a more favorable outcome, but not by much. Kraschnewski et. al. found that only 17.6% of obese dieters were able to maintain a 10% weight loss after one year.
  • 90% of Americans don’t have written goals.
  • 94% of teen drivers acknowledge the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admit to doing it anyway. How many teens text and drive and just don’t admit it?
  • Medicine adherence – only 70% of all prescriptions are filled, and only 30% are ever refilled.

The statistics do not paint a convincing picture about our ability to change.  It appears that we fail more than we succeed.

Yet, we keep trying. Why?

I believe that it is because, within each of these figures, there is some hope; there are some people who do succeed.

We see the success stories.

We hear about them.

From time to time, we’ve been them.

Change does happen.

Dan Gilbert of Harvard talks about how when you look back at who you were 10 years ago, you see how much you’ve changed. He states that for most people that change is significant, regardless of your age. We change the things we do, where we go, who we hang out with, what we work on and what we care about.  We tend to think that once we reach a certain age that we’ve stopped changing or growing. Dr. Gilbert’s research shows that while we may not realize the change that takes place in the short-term, when we look back long enough we realize that we have changed a ton.

Take a moment to think about yourself 10 years ago – and then think about all the things in your life that have changed and how you’ve changed with them.

See, change is possible. I would argue that it is inevitable. We are changing all the time. It is just a matter of influencing how we approach that change and making sure that you are changing in ways that you want.

You should be the director of your life.

You determine where you want to go and how you are going to achieve it.  Change that is left up to chance or the whims of the universe can sometimes be great, but often, we are left worse for the wear. Change that is directed by you can help you achieve your dreams.

It might not be easy, but change does happen.

So go for it!

Take the time to work on who you are and your goals. Figure out what you need to change to achieve them. It might be hard, but you can do it.

Here are some tips to help make it happen:

  • Make sure that you enable your emotions for the change and embrace the need for change beyond just your rational self.
  • Take time to think about how you will overcome the obstacles that stand in your way.
  • Figure out how to harness the habits that you will need to sustain the change.
  • Enable your environment to make staying on course easier.
  • Enlist support from your social network and use that power to help keep you stay on task.
  • Make sure that you plot your progress so that you can celebrate the milestones along your change journey.

Change might be hard…but that makes it all the sweeter when you achieve it!