MESSAGES OF CHANGE: Changepower! 37 Secrets to Habit Change Success
When ACAM asked me to write about my self-help book, Changepower! 37 Secrets to Habit Change Success (Routledge, 2009), they couldn’t have chosen a better time—the beginning of the New Year. Changepower, in essence, is about how to make a resolution at any time of year and follow through with it.
My book had a long gestation period of, oh, about 30 years. (By comparison, an elephant takes “only” 22 months.) The seed was planted in my 20s, when I was shaken by the death of my beloved aunt from lung cancer. She could not stop smoking despite having one lung removed; she died several months after her surgery. For decades, the mystery of why she chose not to change stuck in my brain and my craw.
About 15 years ago, I learned about the stages-of-change model. As you know, in this model, change takes place not in one “aha” moment but in predictable stages over time. Knowing how to move from stage to stage is what counts.
Eureka! Maybe this model held the key to the locked door of my aunt’s decision. It was too late to know for sure, but I wondered if students who learned about the stages could become more ready to change harmful habits. The model inspired project after project: I developed a class called “Habit Change” in 2001. I self-published my curriculum materials for the class and revised them every few years. And, once I retired in 2005, I began writing Changepower in earnest.
I’ll touch on some of the themes of Changepower that readers and students have told me they’ve found helpful.
1) The power of self-compassion. We develop bad habits for a reason. Realizing that we adopted a bad habit to cope with a crossroads or challenge of life can help us accept our false-friend habit situation rather than deny it. Then can we move on.
2) The power of choice. The decision to make a change is itself predictive of successful change. In a study by psychologist John Norcross, people who made New Year’s resolutions were 10 times more likely to stick with their changes 6 months later than people who wanted to change but didn’t make specific resolutions.
3) The power of a meaningful motivator. Your motivator can be “health,” “vanity,” “being a good role model for my children,” “love,” writing an article—anything meaningful that doesn’t harm you or others. “Willpower” is “using the thought of your motivator to guide your actions.” So, once you have a motivator, you’ve got at least some willpower!
4) Add “changepower” to willpower. Sometimes it’s easier to change your environment than to change yourself. “Changepower” is backing up your willpower with helpful people, places, and things.
5) Make a specific plan or join a program. After you make a resolution to change, what will you do the next day? You need a simple plan with your “rules.” Or, for complicated habits, like eating, or for addictions, join a program you can believe in, whether AA or Weight Watchers.
6) Learn from relapses and setbacks. My students were relieved to learn that lapses and relapses were a normal part of change. Just learn from them and begin again!
I could not have written and published Changepower without using “changepower,” especially from fellow professionals. A psychologist friend taught me how to write a self-help book. Famous people like Dr. James Prochaska, Bill O’Hanlon, and Dr. Howard Rosenthal wrote blurbs. So, to pay it forward, if you’d like input on your writing project, email me at megselig@hotmail.com.
~ Meg Selig, LPC, NCC
January, 2011
(Changepower is available at your online bookstore, your library, or your local bookstore. If they don’t have it, ask them to order it for you! For signed copies of Changepower, or to take a look at my curriculum, go to www.changepower.net. Please follow my blog at www.psychologytoday.com/blog/changepower.)
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