Note: This is Part 7 of a 7 part series. The rest of the series includes:

1. How to Make Lasting Changes
2. From Unconscious to Conscious
3. Contemplation & Procrastination
4. Preparation & Planning to Act
5. 3, 2, 1… Action!
6. Maintaining the Change
7. Summing it All Up

If you’ve stuck with this series for this long, thank you and congratulations! I hope you’ve learned a lot about what is takes to create real, lasting change. When you think back on changes that you’ve made in the past can you identify the following stages? (Here’s a hint: they don’t always happen in a neat, linear way):

1. Precontemplation. These were the “bad old days” before you realized that change had to happen. For some period of time – maybe your whole life up to that point – you stayed stuck in your pre-change ways and may have even been happy there. Then, you discovered that there was a better way to do things or to live and you advanced to…
2. Contemplation. At this point you started thinking that you needed to make a change. Maybe you started to feel emotional about your situation and saw ways to make it better. Maybe others started pointing out a need for change and you began to agree with them. Eventually you made your mind up that you were going to change and you started…
3. Preparation. When you began making serious plans and doing the background work you needed to begin a change in earnest, you were preparing. You might have done some mental preparation, visualization, and positive thinking. Maybe you enrolled in a class and learned the skills that you needed to change. You could have purchased some supplies or removed some obstacles. When all of this prep work was done you moved to…
4. Action. During action you expended the energy you needed to change the direction in which you were traveling. You got up early, or stayed up late, and started the work to create the change that you desire. Action lasts as long as it takes to get adjusted to the change and progress to…
5. Maintenance. The final stage of change is maintenance, where the change moves from being very active to being just the way you do things. At a minimum, it takes a person at least 21 days to establish a new behavioral habit, but many changes require even longer to become maintenance activities. When you are in maintenance you gradually take steps to ensure that you don’t regress to your previous state. You “burn your bridges” and put new systems and routines in place to make it easier to remain on the new path.

What Next?

There are only three things you can do when you are in the maintenance stage of change. You can:

• Continue to maintain, allowing your new state to become the status quo,
• Regress to your previous state,
• Or, decide to change some more and begin the process all over again.

Most of us want to avoid regressing, but it does happen – especially when trying to change long ingrained habits such as smoking or poor eating habits. If regression happens, the best course of action is to move back to action as quickly as possible, taking some time for better preparation if needed.

Eventually, many of us want to improve on the changes that we’ve made, so we enter into another round of the stages that change. This can be a really positive thing, since much change is iterative – it is best done gradually. For example, I might want to change my diet from an omnivore diet to a vegetarian diet. Once I’ve adjusted to that, I might want to eat more complex carbohydrates and less sugar, or I might give up dairy products. It’s hard to make all of these changes at once, so it can be helpful to make one change at a time, give yourself a chance to adjust, then tackle the next stage of the change.

Finally, it’s perfectly fine to continue to maintain the change you’ve made, assuming that you are getting positive results. In fact, it’s probably a good thing to give yourself a break after making an intense change. Give yourself a chance to reach an equilibrium again, since trying to change too many things in too rapid of succession can lead to change fatigue and ultimately cause resistance to change.

A Promise and a Request

If you’ve found this series valuable, I have good news for you. I am currently working on turning the series into an ebook that I will be giving away for free on this site. I am currently working on creating some additional content for the ebook and plan to include some worksheets and more practically focused suggestions to help you make real, lasting changes in your life – but I need your help!

Is there anything that you would like to see in an expanded version of this series? Are there questions you have that I didn’t answer? Do you feel that I skimmed over some parts of the process and would like to see more details about anything?

Please let me know what you would like to learn either by leaving a comment below, or sending an email to maria (at) neverthesamerivertwice (dot) com.

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