Tips for Making Sustainable Life Changes
“We may not know how to implement changes, we may need more information, education and even help from another for guidance.”
Did you know, when we finally decide to make change, we’ve already been moving through what’s called “stages of change?”
Making changes, regardless of where you’re at in your stage, is about growing and opportunity. Understanding your readiness for change, and the stage of change you’re in, can give you the opportunity to make the choices that are right for you. In turn, this will help you move toward your goals and be successful.
The first stage of change is something called pre-contemplation. Pre-contemplation occurs before our willingness to make change. In fact, we’re in pre-contemplation when we don’t want to consider the change at all. Contemplation is where many of us stay, and for different reasons. We may not know how to implement changes, we may need more information, education and even help from another for guidance. Pre-contemplation is not necessarily a decision to act either. It is a stage where we are willing to admit certain truths to ourselves, considering pros and cons and creating a risk-reward analysis.
The Health Belief Model (HBM; Hochbaum & Rosenstock, 1952) proposes that a person's motivation to undertake a health behavior can be divided into three categories: individual perceptions, modifying factors, and likelihood of action. Individual perceptions are factors that affect the perception of illness and with the importance of health to the individual, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity. Modifying factors include demographic variables, perceived threat, and cues to action. The likelihood of action is the perceived benefits minus the perceived barriers of taking the recommended health action. The combination of these factors causes a response that often manifests into the likelihood of that behavior occurring (Janz & Becker, 1984; Rosenstock & Strecher, 1988).
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