The Two Primal Reasons for Change

Can you change your habits? Maybe you want to feel more energetic; have a spring in your step.

Or maybe the extra 20-30 pounds you’ve carried on your frame for the past several years has finally become a most unwanted friend.

Or maybe you’ve said, “I have got to get in better shape. I’m way too weak.”

But you just can’t seem to make the change. One day bleeds into the next with the same mantra but Change says, “You’ll never catch me.”

What does it take for you to really change? Or is it true that people never do change? You’re just stuck in a really bad spot and that’s just the way it is?

Is Change Impossible?

You can change. But usually, the motivator is either a high level of pain, discomfort or fear or, on the other end of the spectrum, pleasure.

So, we could boil it down to pain or pleasure. Those are the two primal motivators for almost everyone.

Randy Jackson, the infamous American Idol judge (Yo, Dawg!), had this to say about what it took for him to finally change his ways once he was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes (from an interview with the LA Times)

People have a really hard time making lifestyle changes for diabetes. What motivated you?

“Being in the emergency room when I got my diagnosis…”  -Randy Jackson

Fear at work.

At the top of the list of making change work, is this: know why you’re making the change, what to do and how to do it. Without this basic step, nearly all change will fail. Knowledge is the cornerstone.

Most people have some vague notion of what’s involved in, say, losing weight (i.e. fat) which is usually eat less, move more. But that’s not nearly enough. Without the anchor of why, an overarching purpose, your efforts will fade like an old Polaroid picture. For Randy Jackson the reason was a big one: to keep living. For you, it’s probably not that dire.

Think about this. Imagine what you’ll be able to do in ten years given your current state of health and fitness. There’s no evidence that you’ll be substantially better in ten years by staying on the same path, with the same habits, carrying the same extra pounds with the same level of weakness that you have now.

In ten years, you’ll be weaker, more frail, less agile, heavier and more easily fatigued. A couple flights of stairs might be your Mount Everest.

The good news is that you can change. You just have to get honest with yourself, dig deep, make a promise, keep the promise and show up in your life. You need to manage willpower fueling it with your why. Day after day. It’s simple but not easy.