The Process of Change: A three-dimensional approach
- Rachel Garrison
- May 30, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 15, 2023
At some point, most of us have wanted to make a change and found it difficult to do so. Maybe you’ve wanted to start eating healthier, quit smoking, or cut back on drinking. Maybe you’ve wanted to take control of your finances, stop texting your ex late at night, or spend less time on social media and read more books.
Perhaps you’ve been successful in some changes—congrats! But chances are you’ve had the experience of making progress on a change you’d like to see, only to fall back into familiar habits a few days or weeks later. Why? If we want it so bad and we know what needs to happen, why can’t we just do it?
Spoiler alert: You’re not failing. This is the process of change.
The Five Stages of Change
In the late 1970s, researchers Prochaska and DiClemente were working with people who wanted to quit smoking cigarettes. They wanted to figure out why some people were successful quitting long term, while others relapsed after a few days or weeks. In following hundreds of people over several years, they found that it didn’t really matter which smoking cessation program a person used—the best predictor of long-term success was a person’s internal motivation and readiness to quit.
These findings led to the development of the Transtheoretical Model, also known as the Stages of Change, to describe this aspect of human behavior. Prochaska and DiClemente identified five stages a person goes through on their way to lasting change of any sort:
1. Precontemplation
In precontemplation, we have no intention of changing our behavior in the foreseeable future. In this stage it’s possible that we aren’t yet aware there’s a problem, or maybe we're just resistant to seeing it as such. As shown in the focus column, our attitude toward change is a flat-out “no.”
2. Contemplation
In this stage, we become aware of the consequences of our current behavior and the benefits of making a change. We begin to consider the pros and cons, and our attitude takes the tone of “maybe.”
3. Preparation
In the preparation stage, we’ve settled on “yes” and made a commitment to change. Now we need a plan for how to proceed. Someone in active addiction may explore options for inpatient treatment or support group meetings. A person who wants to begin exercising may look into local gyms. Someone who wants to drink more water may research the recommended daily intake for their height and weight.
4. Action
This is where the rubber meets the road. We have a plan and we implement it, one day, one hour, one minute at a time.
5. Maintenance
According to Prochaska and DiClemente’s original model, we reach the maintenance stage after about six months of consistent action. At this point, we’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t—now it’s just about maintaining the change by sticking to what works.
It would be super cool if once we reached the maintenance stage of change we were home-free, but that’s not always how it goes. In fact, relapse (a return to the former behavior) can occur at any stage. Why? Because ambivalence is always associated with change.
Ambivalence
Simply put, ambivalence means we’re on the fence. We’re weighing the pros and cons of making a change. The cons aren’t always obvious—if I want to start preparing salads for lunch every day, that sounds like a healthy choice, right? Sure, but it also means I’m going to have to take the time to grocery shop and prep the salad. It means I’m not going to be joining my coworker on their lunch run to McDonald’s. If I’m not a big fan of salads, it means I’m giving up the food I’d rather be eating.
This ambivalence is most obvious in the contemplation stage, but it can return at any time throughout the subsequent stages. Typically, once we’re aware of something we’d like to change, relapse simply takes us back to contemplation—we’re back to the pros and cons of making or maintaining the change and for the moment, the cons (the losses associated with that change) are outweighing the pros (the gains).
The Stages of Change model is a great way to understand the process of change, but it can feel a little linear or even cyclical. Maybe we get all the way to the maintenance stage only to fall back into our old habits. If we look at it like this, we have only two options: forward or backward—and backward tends to feel like failure.
In reality, it’s perfectly natural to make several attempts at change before we “get it right.” A host of factors plays into our ability to sustain a change—from our brain chemistry, to neural pathways, to trauma, to environmental influences and other present-day stressors.
Still, a great deal of shame is often attached to our relapses. To combat this shame, I like to employ the concept of successive approximation.
Successive Approximation
In this context, I use the term successive approximation to describe the upward spiral of change. If we relapse, it feels like we’re retreading the same ground, just moving around in an endless cycle of brief success punctuated by repeated failure. But what if this is part of the larger process of change? What if with every successive (continued, sequential) attempt, we’re actually learning, growing, and therefore approximating the ultimate goal?
In this way, successive approximation turns our linear concept into a 3-D rendering. Instead of going backward, we’re progressing on the upward spiral. The territory may be familiar, but we’re seeing it from a new vantage point.
Taking the perspective of change as a fluid, three-dimensional process is critical, because whether we’re talking about something as profound as addiction recovery or as seemingly simple as going to bed a half hour earlier each night, the shame associated with perceived failure is one of the biggest predictors of relapse.
I can’t stress this enough: We can take accountability and strive to do better without getting mired in shame. One does not necessitate the other.
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