People often aim for really lofty goals, especially this time of year when we “resolve” to make it happen.
“I want to lose 20 pounds.”
“I want to run a marathon.”
“I want to quit sugar.”
In theory, big goals are great. In reality, big goals require A LOT of behavioral modification to achieve and maintain. And, if the changes required are too extreme, they are almost guaranteed to fail. Why? Because humans don’t like change. The human brain will literally rebel against it.
According to the Harvard Business Review, there are 10 reasons why people resist change. While the HBR article is written from a career point of view, all the principles apply to health and wellness as well.
-
- Loss of control. – Change interferes with autonomy and can make people feel like they’ve given up agency.
- Excess uncertainty. – “People will often prefer to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown. As the saying goes, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.”
- Surprises are scary. When faced with something new or different, it’s easier to say “no” than “yes”.
- Creatures of habit. – “Routines become automatic, but change jolts us into consciousness, sometimes in uncomfortable ways.”
- Loss of face. It can be embarrassing to commit to something when previous commitments haven’t worked out. It’s hard to put yourself out there again for fear of what others will think of you or what you will think of yourself.
- Concerns about competence. Can I do it? Will I be successful? What if I fail?
- More work. “Change is indeed more work.” Not many people want to work more.
- Ripple effect. Change impacts those around you. Sometimes we hold ourselves back for fear the change will not be supported by family, friends, etc.
- Past resentments. Change reminds us of things from our past and old wounds can be ripped open without warning.
- Change can hurt. Change can make us feel like we aren’t like we once were and that our ‘edits’ aren’t aren’t acceptable to friends and family around us.
While change is never easy, there are ways to minimize the discomfort associated with them. And that is exactly what we are doing with the 2-week Nourish Kickstart. Rather than ask you to make huge investments in time or money, we are offering a short-term, digestible, safe and affordable way to set up some new systems that will hopefully inspire better habits.
If you love it, you are welcome to continue your Nourish journey. If not, no worries. Hopefully you learned something new that will fuel your future goals, however big or small those may be.
Hope you will join us!
Erin
+-+-+-+- CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR NOURISH KICKSTART +-+-+-+-
