How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Here is a quick reminder that big changes are a series of small steps. If you’ve made a commitment for things to be different this year, consider breaking your commitment down into daily and weekly goals. Often commitments to change involve a change in lifestyle, and it’s easy to underestimate how difficult this is. Going back to old routines often leads to old behaviors. 

What is one thing that will be doing differently today, this week, or this month? How will you keep track of changes? Consider making your commitment to change public.

Who is supporting you in making these changes? 

Someone once told me that if you are on the bottom the only way you can move is up. Here are 27 stages of change that you might be going through right now:

1. Be reminded on some gut level of why you want or need to change
2. Avoid everything related to changing
3. Consider those who have changed
4. Compare yourself to those whose lives are different
5. Attack yourself for not changing
6. Start to take the first step towards change
7. Become overwhelmed
8. Wallow a bit
9. Consider the benefits of change
10. Get motivated or inspired by others whose lives are different
11. Be reminded on some gut level of how things are miserable for you now
12. Ask for help
13. Experience a sense of efficacy or encouragement
14. Experience a setback or discouragement
15. Try again
16. Become overwhelmed
17. Avoid people and places reminding you of change, at least for a while
18. Give up
19. Try again
20. Get reminded of how miserable you are
21. Approach everything that you’ve tried to avoid
22. Get overwhelmed
23. Take a small step and stick with it
24. Notice the pros and cons of the small step
25. Rant and rave to other people in your life about how things aren’t working
26. Try to get help again
27. Get motivated, take another step.

Etc!

Don’t kid yourself. This stuff is hard. We’ve all been there!