photo credit: Send me adrift. via photopin cc
What is the big secret? How can you go from living a sedentary life to living a life full of activity and positive vibes? Learning to live actively requires more effort and more time than any other behavior related to health.
Last week we focused on building a foundation for change; that is, identifying why changing is important to you. When you align your desire for change with your motivators and values, the change process becomes more defined and manageable.
I hope the exercise from last week helped elicit some new thoughts about living a more active life. One client mentioned that she had never thought about the questions from last week. She never thought to ask herself why becoming active mattered to her. She had a history of trying to live up to expectations of others so when she spent time thinking about why it mattered to her, she became more focused on herself, thus more able to identify with a vision she wants apart from anyone else’s expectations. As she has a history of starting and stopping exercise, this was a missing yet vital foundational step she had never considered.
This week we are going to talk about change. Behavior change unfolds slowly over time through a series of stages. We don’t want to rush a good thing! When you begin to change from being sedentary to active, you move through stages of change in an uneven manner with some good days and some bad days. This normal process takes time!
To be successful at starting an exercise program, we go from thinking about it, to planning on it, learning about it and then taking small significant steps to realize success. These small steps serve as the stepping stones on the way to better health. Remember, change happens from the inside out.
Stages of change are divided up into the following steps:
Pre-contemplation: This is where the “I won’t change” or “I can’t change” people live. If someone is not ready or willing to change, no amount of coaching or training will help. The “I won’t” contemplators have no interest in changing. The “I can’t” camp of believers don’t actually believe they are able to change.
Contemplation: The “I might” people know that they need to get more active and are considering doing something within the next 6 months. These people are beginning to realize that more activity has great health benefits.
Preparation: “I will” In this stage, you are planning to become more active within the next month. This is where the value of doing homework – or what we call cognitive goals – comes in handy. For example, reading articles and books on walking benefits, shoes and activity tracker devices.
Action: “I am.” This is the stage of those who recently began some sort of activity program. The biggest time and energy investment is in this stage. You must remain attentive to the logistics of how to fit the activity into your daily life.
Maintenance: “I still am.” When you have been active for 6 months, you have made it to the maintenance stage. Your new exercise behavior has become better established. Be mindful of boredom or loss of focus; this is where you may need to up your game by setting some new goals.
Change is a lopsided, less than perfect process. Where are you in this change process? If you are thinking of becoming more active, do you see yourself doing it in the next 6 months or within the next month? Recognizing that there is a process can be such a relief. Contrary to what you read or hear in the media, you don’t have to change overnight. Also, recognizing that this whole “change thing” is a cyclical process filled with periods of progression and relapse. There is no perfection in change. Whew. What a load off your shoulders.
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