How Hard is it to Change?

We know it’s hard to make positive changes in our life. We’re all resistant to change for a host of reasons. I want to share a statistic I heard about how hard it is to change. How we struggle to change even when our life is on the line.

Let’s say you go to the doctor for a regular check up. They inform you that you have heart disease. You’re seriously at-risk from all the cigarettes you smoke, the few hours of sleep you get and your constant inactivity.

The doctor tells you that need to make some lifestyle changes or you’re going to die. Soon. You need to clean up your diet, stop smoking, move more frequently, hit the gym, find a community and drink some water. That’s an overwhelming list for anyone. It’s not ideal to make all those changes at once. Your life is on the line though. You have to make those changes or it’s game over.

1 in 7. 

That’s how many people are actually able to make these changes. I even found someone citing that it’s 1 in 9. People are unable to make these behavioral changes. Our lives have become secondary to our current comforts.

If it’s that hard to change when our life is on the line, how hard is it to change just because you want to stay ahead and never have that conversation with a doctor? This goes back to what we talked about yesterday: we need to constrain our system. Make it so there are less decisions to make so you can’t choose wrong. 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach