5 Psychological Stages of Behavior Change
I think that this is a topic that is critical to understand if you identify with living a life of pursuing your best self! We love to think of ourselves as the go-getter, and the person who is motivated and driven. But the truth of life is that we have those great ups, but we also have downs in life. During these downs, we can struggle with feeling the motivation to create change. Reaching a better understanding of these 5 Psychological Stages of Behavior Change allows you to better coach yourself through those challenging times to get back to that excited place and move forward!
Let's start by laying out the road map of the 5 stages, and the order in which someone progresses through them:
Precontemplation: When you are in this stage, you are not even aware of the area that you want to change. You are not putting any thought into what it would look like to create change in that area of life.
Contemplation: When you are in this stage, you have begun the process of understanding what it would look like to create change in a given area, and what the pros and cons of doing so are.
Preparation: When you are in this stage, and have stepped into owning the idea that you believe in the benefits of creating change in a given area, and you are planning how you are going to begin taking action.
Action: When you are in this stage, you are actively executing the plan that you committed to, while maintaining the ability to revise it to keep it appropriate.
Maintenance: When you are in this stage, you have brought a change in a specific area to where it is a cemented part of how you live. You are working on integrating this area of life, and the new change you have created with the ever changing scene of life.
As you start to reach an understanding of the fact that these 5 stages of behavior change have been studied for years in Psychology, and they are real for all of us, you can use this understanding to help coach yourself appropriately based on which stage you may be in surrounding a specific area of our Wellness.
Let’s take a look at a specific example of how this may play out in someone’s Wellness. In 2022, I worked with a client who was focused on improving her Wellness through her nutritional approach. Prior to this client reaching out to me, this client acknowledged that they had habits for a while that did not support Wellness. During this time of life, this client would have been in the Precontemplation stage.
This client was also honest about the fact that they had been putting in a lot of effort this year in their physical activity routine, and that was how light started to be shed on nutrition. As awareness of how nutrition could impact physical activity grew, this client developed the idea that there may be a better way to go about nutrition than the current approach.
As this client reached out to me, they were in the preparation stage, and we discussed what an effective nutrition plan would look like in order to support the changes desired! This client had done the work to seek out support, and do the research to put an effective plan in place.
As we worked together over 3 months, this client clearly stepped into the Action stage, and took ownership of learning more about nutrition, and applying this learning in a consistent and planned out approach to daily eating.
As this client “graduated” after our 3 months together, this client is now stepping into the Maintenance stage, where inevitable adjustments will need to be made throughout the rest of life to continue receiving the benefits from nutrition that have now become regular.
This is a very straightforward example, but I hope it helps lay out how someone would realistically move through these stages. One of the important tools I think is worth discussing in this topic is how do we move from the Precontemplation stage to Contemplation, and then again from Contemplation to Preparation. I feel these are the two critical stages to be able to identify you are in, and take action to move forward.
If you have identified that you are in the Precontemplation stage, then there are some important steps you can take to support yourself in moving forward.
Surround yourself with information or people who are aligned with the change you may benefit from. This begins to consistently raise your awareness to the situation, which supports you in reaching a transition point where you are not just aware of it, but you are actively thinking about it yourself.
Avoid people that are not aware of the change you are contemplating, or do not align with the actions required to make it. These people will not increase your awareness, and will not support your moving forward into Contemplation.
As you progress into the stage of Contemplation from simply raising your exposure and awareness to a certain situation, then you are ready for tools that will help you move forward yet again in the Preparation stage:
Seek support from experts, coaches, professionals
Establish a support system in your network
Continue learning more about the change(s) you are contemplating
Contemplate what it would look like if you were successful in creating this change.
It is so critical that we as human beings apply our ability to be self aware, to not only learn about these stages of behavior change, but ask ourselves regularly what stage we are in? Breaking down our Wellness into pieces, and asking yourself what stage you are in with each Pillar of our Wellness?
This audit allows you to approach progress from a place of better understanding, as well as apply a road map that is specific to the stage of change you find yourself in currently. This leads to more effectively creating change in these Pillars of Wellness, that you have chosen to improve because you believe in the positive impact it will have in your life.
Sources:
Mahmoudi K, Taghipoor A, Tehrani H, Niat HZ, Vahedian-Shahroodi M. Stages of Behavior Change for Physical Activity in Airport Staff: a quasi-experimental study. Invest Educ Enferm. 2020 Feb;38(1):e02. doi: 10.17533/udea.iee.v38n1e02. PMID: 32124570; PMCID: PMC7871476.
Şekerci YG, Kitiş Y. Effects of the stages of change model-based education and motivational interview on exercise behavior in diabetic women. Transl Behav Med. 2019 Mar 1;9(2):256-265. doi: 10.1093/tbm/iby047. PMID: 29741688.
