“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale (1898 – 1993)

A behavior change that lasts is everyone’s hope, whether it is to quit smoking, lose weight or change vocabulary around the children.  Too many diet books, stop smoking articles and other behavior changing materials run short on the most important portion of the process, in my opinion.

They say “becoming aware of the problem” is the crucial step in behavior change, but I’d argue that the nearly forgotten aspect of planning is the key to making changes last.  While I don’t advocate remaining in the planning stage for a long time, it is a step that marshals resources and builds the flexible skills needed when the action begins.

One example of planning for behavior change is simply finding something else to do instead.  One patient came in to a session bubbling with the happy news that she had lost six pounds by stopping smoking.  “I had always feared that quitting cigarettes would bring a weight gain, but I actually lost!”  It turns out that her plan to quit smoking included a morning walk with her neighbor during the time when she’d normally be smoking her first cigarette of the day.  Their three-mile walk got her home just in time to shower and be out the door to work, leaving no time to pause for a cigarette break.  She knew she’d miss breakfast and be hungry after walking, so she began preparing a morning snack that could be taken with her to the office, and she did this in the evening when her usual pattern would be to have a cigarette after dinner.  Over the course of a single month, she saw progress in two areas instead of just one.  Her planning paid off in ways that happily surprised her.

In future segments, I’ll point out other ways to make the planning stage more effective in getting the changes you want.