When most people think of change, they think of the action or effort that a person puts forth in an attempt to change. Change happens when you change something, right? It seems simple enough, but change usually doesn’t happen like magic. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes.
Step back for a moment and think about a time that you changed a habit. Maybe you started exercising or you stopped smoking. Changing that habit was more than just a snap decision of "I'm working out every day now!" or "I'm kicking the cigs forever!". There were steps leading up to that change, and there were things that happened after you made the change. This is where the Cycle of Change comes in.
Also known as the stages of change model or the transtheoretical model, the Cycle of Change conceptualizes change as having six stages. and it starts before you even think there is something to change.
Almost more importantly, it continues beyond the "change" itself and addresses what happens when we mess up or take up an old habit again (relapse). Including relapse in the Cycle of Change normalizes that experience because we rarely are able to make any change immediately and completely, but the hope is that every time we go through the Cycle of Change, we learn something new that we can apply to the next time we attempt to make or maintain a change.
An Example
Let's take an example and apply it to the Cycle of Change. Here's what the six stages might sound like for somebody trying to quit smoking.
Pre-contemplation (Think of this as where you are BEFORE you think there is something to change.):
"There is nothing wrong with smoking six packs of cigarettes a day."
Contemplation (Think of this as where you recognize that there is something you want to change.):
"Okay, maybe smoking six packs of cigarettes a day isn't the healthiest for me. It might make it difficult for me to run that marathon with my sister next month."
Preparation (Think of this as where you are committed to change and preparing to make the change.):
"Fine. If I want to be able to breathe so that I can run, I need to quit smoking. Starting tomorrow, I am not smoking ever again."
Action (Think of this as actually making the change - behaving differently or making a different choice.):
"Ta da! Zero cigarettes smoked today."
Maintenance (Think of this as keeping up the change.):
"Three days in a row with no smoking. Nailed it!"
Relapse (Think of this as moments when you didn’t keep up the change.):
"Man, this week has been stressful. I need to smoke. Just four packs today though!"
This person went from smoking six packs of cigarettes a day to none for a few days. That's a pretty impressive change! Then life happened and the person relapsed into the smoking habit - but just four packs this time.
The point of seeing these stages as a cycle is that you recognize you can (and will!) go through them again. Hopefully this person will be able to go through the Cycle of Change again (maybe skipping precontemplation and contemplation and heading back into preparation, using what they learned the first time around) and decrease to three packs or two packs, eventually reaching the goal of zero packs smoked.
By conceptualizing change in this way, you can recognize your progress in ways that you might not have before! Can you use this model to explain any of your own experiences with change? Comment below!
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