The Stages of Change

Today I’m talking about behavior change. This is the most difficult part of creating new healthy habits. Timing is probably the single most important part of behavior change because timing promotes commitment to change. Take for instance making a New Year’s resolution to change unhealthy diet behaviors. This usually begins in December but can occur months prior. Once a person makes a decision to resolve behavior change on January 1st, they usually indulge in the bad behavior prior to having to change on New Year's Day. Where is the commitment to change 6 months later? It was lost because the timing was not right for the individual. The behavior change came with a set date however nothing was done prior to the date to support the commitment to change except for indulging in the unhealthy behavior due to a fear of not being able to indulge in it again.

For most people, changing chronic unhealthy behaviors into stable healthy behaviors is a challenging process. Change usually does not happen all at once. It is a gradual process that involves several stages. The Transtheortical Model of Stages of Change describes underlying processes that people go through to change most problem behaviors and adopt healthy ones. Understanding the 6 stages will help you along your road to attain stable healthy behaviors.

The 6 stages of change are Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, and Termination/Adoption. In the Precontemplation stage the individual is unwilling to change behaviors; Contemplation stage the individual is considering behavior change in the next 6 months. Using the New Year’s resolution example fits here. In the Preparation stage the individual is taking initial steps to make a change with the next month. Processes in this stage may include purchasing running shoes, culinary equipment or looking up classes and goal setting. The Action stage requires the greatest amount of commitment of time and energy because here is where the individual is actively doing things to change or modify unhealthy behavior. For instance, if the decision to eat more whole foods is a goal, writing a shopping list and meal planning is taking action to establish new habits. The Action stage lasts for a minimum of 6 months. In the Maintenance stage the individual has maintained behavior change for up to 5 years. The last stage of Termination/Adoption is where the individual has eliminated the unhealthy behavior and has maintained the healthy behavior for more than 5 years.

My next posts will begin to breakdown each stage into its processes.