Should Personal Change Be Fast or
Slow And Steady?
I have always had a challenge with
taking a slow and steady approach to changes in my habits. I need to shock my system in order to get the
results I want. It is not that I need
immediate gratification. However, I do
admit it may appear that way. I need a
steep slope of change and then can transition to a more gradual approach.
I have tried both ways. My issue is maintaining any changes. I see great results, but don’t instill the
habits so they are a permanent part of my life.
Slowly but surely I slide back to my starting or sometimes even worse
than where I started.
I say I instilled habits but that is
the wrong term. Habits are ingrained
behaviors. I never got to the ingrained
part. They were just temporary. How
long should it take for a behavior change to become a permanent habit, I don’t
know. I assume it varies with each
individual. I have been on programs
where changes are given anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to become habits.
What I do know is that I am only
capable of making one or at most two changes in a particular area at any one
time. Any more and my discipline has not
held up. Also, I rarely had a support
group that was there with me. Usually it
was an online support structure. I am
sure there are many who benefited from this, however, I know from my previous
experiences that it would be best for me if the support was local.
I will continue to set goals and
instill habits. Some will be aggressive. I will not stop trying.
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