Dear S.,
For the last two weeks, I have responded to your letter by addressing issues related to mental health and emotional eating. This week, I’d like to discuss the final area of concern you identified: motivation.
As I begin to write this, I have just finished reading the responses to my blog entry from two weeks ago related to depression and diabetes. I am well aware that motivation and self-care are seriously affected by mental health issues. I also want to say that although in these blogs we can offer advice or ideas for help, these ideas will never work for everyone. The advantage to this format, however, is you will also get ideas from readers who have found their own ways to deal with similar problems.
The model of behavior change and motivation I will discuss today is known as the Stages of Change. This model was developed as the result of responses from people who were successful at changing their behavior. The initial research involved people who were successful at quitting smoking. This research has since been expanded to the topics of eating, exercise, and taking medicines to treat diabetes. While these behaviors differ from each other, behavior change is similar across all behaviors.
According to the Stages of Change, the first stage of the process of change is being OK with our behavior just as it is. This is known as the pre-contemplation stage, and in it, we are usually comfortable with things just as they are. We might say “I like things just as they are—I don’t need to change.” People in this stage often need more information about the problem, including why it is a problem and the negative effects it can have. They often need a reason to start thinking about change. A little encouragement—or fear of the consequences of not making a change—helps this thinking to start.
When someone begins to think about change, they have moved to the next stage: contemplation. In this stage, people are twice as likely to get to a point where they take action. Contemplation is a time of emotional struggle. This is when you may want to change, but you may also continue to be quite attached to the old behavior (most of us are). This state of ambivalence, or mixed feelings, leaves us feeling confused and uncertain of the path that is best. We may say “Yes, but…” to a lot of the suggestions others may give us about behavior change. S., this is probably the stage you are in: You want to change, but you can’t get the energy to alter your behavior.
I wonder if you could answer these questions:
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in changing your eating habits? (“1” stands for “not at all interested,” and “10” stands for “I am there.”)
- What has helped you get to this point?
- What gets in your way of making a change?
- What is one small thing you could do that could help you move a little closer to “10” on the scale above?
Another important question to ask yourself is, what are the benefits related to changing your eating habits? What are the costs? Can you begin to do something about this balance, so that the benefits of change outweigh the costs?
During the contemplation stage, it’s often helpful to seek support. The most helpful support is not a support group that accepts everything you do, but rather one that will offer some accountability for you. In other words, you want not just emotional support, but encouragement to do well and achieve your goals.
The next stage is called preparation. This is a time of clear goal setting. Make sure to keep your goals simple, measurable, and very specific so that you know when you have completed the task. Do not expect too much of yourself here—this stage is not about working yourself to death. It’s really about setting yourself up for success.
The next two stages are action and maintenance, in which we are busy working toward the goals we’ve set and figuring out how to keep it up. While we often think our work is done here, it is just beginning. This is when we have to be aware of faltering and moving back to an earlier stage, which is actually very likely to happen. This is known as recycling and is an opportunity to learn from earlier efforts by keeping the things that worked and tossing out those things that were not helpful.
As you can see, motivation and behavior change are not magic—they really come about through efforts that you make on your own. You can learn more about behavior change and the stages of change by looking it up on the Internet (for example, About.com has a helpful overview of the Stages of Change) or talking with a Certified Diabetes Educator about it.
I hope you find this useful.
